"Lord of All Men, at the head
of the Two Lands as a whole !
(He) who comes in peace !
Lord of the Blooming of the Heart !"Hymn to Osiris -
stela - XIIth Dynasty - British Museum

"Hail Osiris, son of Nut
! (...)
Whose awe Atum set in the heart
of men, gods, spirits and the dead. (...)
King of gods, great power of heaven,
ruler of the living, king of those beyond !"Hymn to Osiris -
Stela of Sobek-iry - XIIth Dynasty - Louvre

01
Evil or the end of the Golden Age.02
The suffering of Osiris.03
Reassemby and reanimation of Osiris.04 Horus, the avenger of his
father.05
The restoration of Osiris.06
The ascension of Osiris.07 Offertory and Canon.08 Escaping Osiris.09 Assuming the godform of
Osiris.10 Osirian faith & Christianity compared.

"Commoners hide, (but) the gods fly away."Pyramid Texts - §
459a.
The first Egyptian Pyramid Texts appear in the Vth Dynasty, in the underground chambers
of the tomb of King Unas (ca. 2378 - 2348
BCE), namely in its antechamber, passage way and
burial-chamber. Together with the texts found in
the tombs of his successors, Pharaohs Teti, Pepi I, Merenre & Pepi II (ca.
2270 - 2205 BCE) of the VIth Dynasty, they form the first known religious
corpus in world literature.

Pharaoh Unas, Wenis or Unis, was the last
Pharaoh of the Vth Dynasty. His pyramid
at Saqqara is at the South-western corner of Djoser's enclosure. The
complex, a model for these subsequent rulers, is almost diagionally opposed to
the pyramid of Userkaf (ca. 2487 - 2480 BCE), the founder of his
Heliopolitan Dynasty. Pharaoh Unas is the first to include hieroglyphic
inscriptions in a royal tomb.

The inscriptions carved and filled with
blue pigment, contain, in 234 of the 759 known utterances, the first
historical account of the (Heliopolitan) religion of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2670 -
2198 BCE).
Technically, this royal corpus consists of a series of
"utterances" or "spells", so called because the expression "Dd mdw"
("Dd" = "words" ; "mdw" = "speech"),
"to say" or "words to be said", i.e. "to be
recited" is, as a rule, at the head of most.

However, these texts include drama, hymns, litanies, glorifications,
magical texts, offering rituals, prayers, charms, divine offerings, the
ascension of Pharaoh, the arrival of Pharaoh in heaven, Pharaoh settled in
heaven, and miscellaneous texts. It refers to the oldest body of theology
in the world, and precedes the extant textualization of the Vedas,
reckoned at ca. 1900 BCE (most likely the composition was contemporaneous
with the Indus civilization, flourishing between ca. 3000 BCE & 1700 BCE).
These utterances are the codification, in Old Egyptian, of a royal
canon predated by centuries
of oral transmission. Discovered by Maspero in 1881, these Unas texts had been buried
and left undisturbed for ca.
4200 years. An untainted
primary religious source ! Shortly after they were written down and also much
later, the Unas texts as a whole acquired canonical status, and
were copied and reproduced (cf. the Middle Kingdom tomb of Senwosret-Ankh,
"highpriest of Ptah"). The Unas
corpus is also the best preserved body of utterances and contains a complete set of
them. It provides the standard approach to the theology of the Old Kingdom, dominated by Atum-Re of
Heliopolis.

By the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE), when king Khephren (ca. 2540 -
2514 BCE) added the title "son of
Re" to his royal titulary, Ancient Egyptian culture had reached its pinnacle. Canonical
attainments in science, engineering, mathematics, medicine, magic, ritual
and sapiental teachings had been established, and we have to wait until the
New Kingdom (ca. 1539 - 1075 BCE) to witness new developments (as
Atenism and Amonism). However, in all periods, Egypt
would return to the canon begun by king Djoser (ca. 2654 - 2635 BCE) and
his "Leonardo da Vinci", the vizier, scribe, doctor and architect Imhotep,
"the one that comes in peace". In architecture (cf. Giza
pyramids), religion (cf. the Pyramid Texts) and
wisdom-teaching, to name but a few areas of interest, these
rules became sanctosanct.

In the theology of Heliopolis (the "On" of the Bible and
today the
Coptic suburb of Cairo), Pharaoh Unas ascends to the realm of
Atum, the unique supreme deity (cf.
Hornung, 1986), materializing as the
star of our Solar system, Re in his Solar disk (Aten). There, in the Sun's
domain, the First Time, the king is ensured of an ongoing increase in spirituality (an
efficiency due to
the transformation of his Ba into an Akh, a spirit of
light) and a union with the only true source of life and youth, projected
near the Northern Circumpolar Stars ; he arrives there as an awesome god
(cf.
Cannibal Hymn). He sails on Re's Bark of
Millions of Years, ascends with a ladder or flies as a bird, sacred smoke
or a grasshopper.

The lightland of Re, fountain of rejuvenation and endless
power, is a continuing cycle of renewal (in neheh-time), a perpetuum
mobile at the core of (stellar) light. Here, the powerful Sa-energy of the
universal Heka-field can be harvested. The latter is due to the
autogenic activity of the sole creator god Atum.

"Re"
:
the manifest presence of Atum as light on the primordial "hill".

Grosso modo, this Heliopolitan ideology of the divine king was
Solar, stellar & national, complementing the contextual, regional and
variable Lunar spirituality of the common Egyptians.

For good reasons, Kemp (1989) and
Lesko (1999) doubt whether, in the
Predynastic and the historical periods,
Heliopolitanism was shared by the vast majority of unlettered Egyptians. The opposite seems to be true.

"Kemp has suggested that Egyptian religion, as we
know it from the formal, state-approved written texts, is an
intellectually manipulated construction of the historic period, most
likely of the middle or late Old Kingdom (...) to promote the divinity of
the king of Egypt."Lesko,
1999, p.31.

The concept of Horus (the Elder) as the male ruler of the sky, symbolical of
the divine king himself, is rather speculative (top-down) than natural
(bottom-up). Indeed, this idea is the ideological counterpart of the political unification of
Upper (Southern) and Lower (Northern) Egypt.
Hassan (1992) points to the assimilation
by the male king of the power of the great (cow) goddesses at the
beginning of the Pharaonic Period, in particular in the Early Dynastic (Wilkinson,
2001). Lesko (1999) conjectures that up until
approximately 3000 BCE, the sky was considered female (cf. Nut). The great goddess
never vanished, but was assimilated by state doctrine. Indeed, during the
long Pharaonic Period, the
great mother continued to play a crucial role (cf. the suckling scenes, the ritual
role of milk, the continuity of the succession and the accommodation of
dynasty-shifts). Of this, the cults of Neith, Hathor, Isis and Mut as well
as political realities amply testify.

Can it be argued that, because, in order to operate properly, every state
needs to stay in touch with its people, the Heliopolitans introduced or
assimilated (at
the beginning of the Vth Dynasty, ca. 2487 BCE ?) a human
generation of deities, namely Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys, entangled
in a family drama ? They were the
great-grand children of Atum-Re, and represent the human side of the "Golden Age" of Egypt,
the epoch when the gods reigned on Earth, a time when the eternal
equilibrium of the First Time had not yet been broken by Seth. This was the time of Osiris, the
Lunar deity of vegetation, reigning over the whole of Egypt, making her
living, healthy and prosperous. By doing so,
the theologians of Atum-Re (Horakhety) assimilated the popular Lunar cult of Osiris, and
made it part of the royal ritual, especially in terms of the physical
regeneration & resurrection of the king (during and after life), whereas the latter's
ascension remained Solar and spiritualizing, as the architecture of the tombs of Unas and his
successors testify (cf. the Northern shaft directed to the "Imperishable"
circumpolar stars).

In this last family of gods and goddesses, the god Seth played the bad boon. He
envied his brother and being the strongest of the gods, murdered him to
claim the throne of Egypt. From this moment on, creation was divided and
chaos starts to leaks in, ending the Golden Age. What follows is the age of mankind,
in "nominal" time, when the battle between Horus and Seth rages, pushing
the choice between, on the one hand, a peaceful throne or, on the other
hand, the dominion of conscious evil.
Locking horns with his wicked, powerful and perverted uncle, Horus, the
avenger of his father, is
finally vindicated by Re, who, at first, had decided in favour of Seth. At
the end of the day, Horus is enthroned as the justified king of Egypt. He
then descends into the Duat, the netherworld, and brings his Left Eye of
Wellness to Osiris, who, fully restored by it, is able to rise to his heaven
in the Duat.
There, he is enthroned as the king of the dead, establishing a
jurisdiction of his own, separate from all other deities.

And what about the commoners ? As the king looked at his father, the
royals and those part of the administration of the state looked at the
king. But, they and the majority of the illiterate folk (clinging to the
Lunar faith ?), had no other way than "to hide". As nobody except the
divine king had a "Ba" (the dynamical principle enabling spiritualization),
everybody was dependent on his ascension, efficiency and goodwill (in
heaven). To be buried near the king was a privilege and even after the
Osirification of the royal hereafter, as given in the Unas texts, only
Pharaoh was "Osiris the king". Just as in the Old Kingdom,
Egyptian civilization happened in and around the capital Memphis, in the
Pyramid Texts, all spirtualization circumambulated the divine king.

By the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE), this bleek prospect got
turned over. As recent history had made clear the more futile aspects of a strict
royal theocracy to the people (cf. the collapse of the state during the First
Intermediate Period, ca. 2198 - 1938 BCE), the provincials had lost faith in
the effectiveness of the king's exclusive spiritual emancipation and
ability to assure a "good Nile" (a prosperous annual flooding). A
"demotization" of the hereafter occurred, allowing every Egyptian, able to make the
proper preparations, to be "an Osiris NN" after death ("NN"
stands for "nomen natus", the name of the deceased). In this way, the "Beautiful West"
was in principle made accessible to all, and even the commoners could hope
to live forever in the kingdom of Osiris, the ruler of the Duat, the
netherworld of the dead. If justified by the tribunal of Osiris, they
could now directly intervene for their families.

In many ways, this seems an advance. If before, the commoner was totally
dependent on the spiritual evolution of the divine king (without him no
salvation), and so usually spiritually lost, now he or she could make
(even simple) preparations for themselves way beyond the power of being
near to the king. Indeed, their individual conscience ("heart" or "Ib") played a
pivotal role, deciding whether their "Ba" would enter the kingdom of the
good king or be eaten by the monstrous hybrid Ammit, "the Eater",
swallowing the "Ba" if one's heart was found to be "too heavy" ...
The price to pay for this spiritual liberation was the possibility of
damnation. The
damned were punished, brutally tortured and devoured in the "secret slaughter house".

Of course, without the sacred mechanism of mummification and enterment
(allowing the "Ka" to be fed and so the "Ba" to be gratified and dynamic),
no transformation was possible. If a deceased would try to enter the
netherworld without any credentials, he or she would be enslaved by the
hell hounds of Osiris lurking at the borders of the kingdom of the dead,
and be submitted to continuous humiliation (walking on the head, eating
excrement) and torture (repetitive infliction of pain and mutilation by
thousands of knives). All human or divine miscreants capable of harming
the resurrection of Osiris, had to be kept at a distance, and especially
the followers of Seth, who never gave up trying to make incursions, or
other malevolent intruders were kept at bay.

In the eyes of the justified, Osiris was a good king ... According to the
standards of common Egyptians, who believed that without a righteous king,
both the earthly kingdom and the sky were lost, he truly was good,
righteous and true. Creation as a bubble of order surrounded by infinite
chaos would not be submerged in the original, limitless ocean. His murder ended his earthly rule, but made him the sole and
exclusive king of the middle region, the
Duat between Earth (Geb) and sky (Nut), the parents of the human
generation of deities.

Because they had lost trust in the ineffable power of the divine
Horus-king, keeping the fabric of creation operational (effective), the
perfect ruler was introjected, ruling the dark and silent beyond, the
Western kingdom of the dead, mirroring the land of the Pharaohs. From the
Middle Kingdom onwards, the theology of Osiris was refined and
brought into closer harmony with Heliopolitan thought and the emerging
cult of Amun-Re (mirroring that of Atum-Re).

The concept of the Duat is interesting. This dark place of silence is part
of creation but unseen, underneath the surface of the Earth. Most basic
processes of life take place in it, in particular Re's regeneration
(during the 6th Hour of the
Amduat), but also the rebirth of every deceased, Pharaoh
included.

Did the commoners (and even the gods) spoke so well of Osiris because they
truly loved him or out of fear of his judgment and hellish powers ?

"Liberation for the ba meant escaping the
uncertainties of the kingdom of the dead, which was in the final analysis
only an extension of the world of the living, with all its frightening
features, obligations and vexations. Hence the prayer of supplication
Osiris' subjects offered up in an attempt to protect themselves against
everything that might restrict the movement of their ba-souls." - Meeks &
Favard-Meeks, 1996, p.148.

For many reasons, Osirian faith was appealing to the masses. Firstly,
these deities acted out the standard human drama, portrayed as a family
tragedy : the good king of Egypt was murdered and primarily reassembled
and raised from the dead by his sister and wife Isis, engendering Horus,
who, raised in danger by his mother, avenges his murder and restores his
father to full power in the netherworld by means of his (Lunar) eye of
wellness. The sequence explained the becoming of "human time" (instead of
the "eternal repetition" of the cycles of the deities in the "zep tepi",
the First Time, "in the beginning"). In between these broad rubrics, many
secundary themes were worked out and ritualized as long mystery plays,
whereas important "stations" were enacted in processional rituals for the
divine king and his higher priesthood (cf. the Osireon) and pilgrimages
organized (for example to Abydos, burial-place of the head of Orisis).

Secondly, these deities were easier to approach, for their mythological
form resonated with the universal archetypes (genetic constituents)
processing the spiritual evolution of humanity : mother, father & child.
Introjected, these ideal standards were beyond the reach of calamity and
eternalized the hope of a good afterlife in terms of Osiris's perfect
kingdom of the dead.

Thirdly, Osiris was the hope of everyman. His
resurrection from the dead proved beyond doubt that there was life after
death just as there was a new flood every year, a new heliacal rising of
Soped, Sirius (the Greek Sothis), the brightest stationary star of Isis at
the heel of the constellation Orion, symbolic of Osiris and bringer of the
New Year and the new grain ...

In the Old Kingdom, only the divine king was certain to survive physical death. He
rose to the sky and sat together with his father Re in the latter's golden
bark, merging
with Re as a god. Nobody except the "great house" had a spiritual principle of
motility (a "Ba" or soul) effectuating the transformation from soul to spirit ("Akh").
By means of the Eastern horizon ("akhet"), his "Ba" reached the upper sky alone
and its gods trembled when they see him coming, for he enters as "power
of powers" and "image of images" (cf.
Cannibal Hymn).

"May Osiris not come with this his evil coming. Do
not open your arms to him."Pyramid Texts - §
1267.
For the kings, the coming of Osiris is not always appreciated. The kings were warned against
him. Their ultimate spiritual goal aimed beyond the darkness of the land
of Osiris, in the lightfields of Re, filled with eternal light and glory,
devoid of any form of trial, justification or obligation (Atenism
shows many aspects of this exclusivity of the lightland).

In the Middle Kingdom (cf. the Coffin Texts), the dead were :

" (...) poor lost creatures making their way through
hostile parts, unable to count on anything but their own knowledge or the
help of protectors solicitous of their success." - Meeks &
Favard-Meeks, 1996, p.145.

Hence, at best, commoners could cherish the hope to be resurrected
as was Osiris. The latter had procured for himself a separate legislation
or "office", namely that of king of the beautiful West. In a strict sense,
this is not the "land of the dead", but a possible place of glory for the
dead. Those souls who cannot enter, eventually, by lack of
sustenance, slowly perish. Osiris' realm is the kingdom of the
justified deceased : a holy family saved from chaos by a good king. In his dark
kingdom, his noble servants would live out the best of their lives on Earth
for all of eternity, and its heaven was filled with the best of the best,
resembling the excellence of life on Earth.

Yet, Osiris was a king and monarchs need to be served. Freedom was
still dependent on status and power, and was not a given, for knowledge of
the Duat was indispensable. Serving Osiris was deemed the highest
spiritual state attainable for all justified humans, the "Osiris NN".
Although the rich and powerful could afford the magical mechanics to feed
the "Ka" gratifying the "Ba" (igniting the process of spiritualization),
they were not sure to enter the Solar Bark of Millions of Years. Indeed,
even for them, ultimate spiritualization was futile and a noble role in
the holy family of Osiris was the second-best solution. Even the
dead king had to pass through the Duat, but, unlike everybody else, could
always escape Osiris or completely identify with him (in ecstatic,
this-life rituals and trance-like activities - cf. the Sed Festival,
the Osireon, the Dramatic Ramesside Papyrus -
Naydler, 2005).

Although by the New Kingdom, the dead declared to be gods presenting
themselves before Osiris, the power ("sekhem") of their divinity was
always smaller than the dominion of Osiris, whom even the gods (and even
Re) feared. He had procured for himself a kingdom in the hidden place and
could never leave it. Likewise, the deities of the Duat and the blessed
dead were bound to its darkness. If, in the Middle Kingdom,
funerary theology had been trying to learn about the Duat or hidden
chamber, by the New Kingdom they knew. But only literate people could rest
assured never to mishandle the Osirian mechanics and cause their souls to
be annihilated or perpetually chained. Indeed, this very operational knowledge, "proven a million
times" was restricted to the very few. It was highly esoteric and
"initiate" material.

This leaves us with the complementarity of a two-tiered
heaven :

VIA THE
MOON : the (lower) sky of Osiris : the ultimate state of human
blessedness is to live the life of an "Osiris NN", with a court,
humbling servants and a kingdom situated in the vast darkness of the
Duat (like creation is a bubble of moisty air suspended in chaos). Even
the smallest offer made with a sincere heart during earthly life might
be enough to be helped by Isis or Osiris, and so the commoners made sure
the holy family would notice them. This economy is inclusive of
everyman, but conditional, except for Pharaoh - the Eye of Horus ;

ENDING IN THE SUN : the (upper)
sky of Re : the
sky of Osiris and the sky of Re are proximate, and after the highest
spirituality of servitude has been fulfilled, the "Ba" of the deceased is
transformed, in the horizon, into an "Akh" of Re, sailing, among the other pure beings of
light, on the Bark of Re, illuminating the beings of day and night,
including the deities and the justified blessed dead of Osiris (who
otherwise sleep). The sacred knowledge regarding this spiritual
evolution was for the very few and, when first written down (cf. the
Pyramid Texts and the Amduat), portrayed in the tomb of kings
only. This economy is exclusive of everyman, reserved to the deities (as
the king and his high priests) and unconditional - the Eye of Re.

Everywhere people could pray to Osiris, for indeed Seth, in his rampage,
had scattered parts of Osiris' dismembered body all over Egypt :
his left leg in the first Upper Egyptian nome, his right in the sixth, his
jaw in the third, his ear in the tenth Lower Egyptian nome, his head in
Abydos (and Memphis !), his backbone in Busiris, etc. Such omnipresence
may explain his popularity, but also signal his particular, unique
function in the Egyptian pantheon, to wit : the sacred body of nobility
within creation (or "sah"), the divine matter of the
dark, eclipsed Sun at night (cf. the New Kingdom Amduat).

In Spell 142 of the New Kingdom Book of the Dead, Osiris is given 6
times 26 "names of the god Osiris in every place
wherein he chooses to be". These are enumerated in a great litany,
showing the extent of his popularity, for he was deemed omnipresent.
Osiris was not only a "netjer" or "god", but had also been a "nesu" or an
earthly "king", albeit in the "Golden Age", when the gods ruled, and their
self-possessed power ("sekhem") was omnipotent and devoid of evil and
chaos ("isefet" and "Nun").
This was before the time of humanity, initiated by the murder of this god.

For the common Egyptian, Osiris was a good king, a just ruler who
generated life, prosperity and health for all those in his retinue, in
this life and in the next. Of course, they had to be his servants and
dedicate their eternal existence to him and him alone (except for the
brief moments the Bark of Re passed during the night).

The legend of Osiris is told in various ways, but we possess no complete
tale. The Egyptians themselves only alluded to the assassination and
probably conceived the sequence of events as a form of sacred history. Most narratives go back to
De Iside et Osiride of Mestrius Plutarch (ca. 45 - 120 CE), an
initiate of the mysteries of Apollo. He stressed the connection between
the myth of Osiris and the inundation of the Nile and its fertility (cf.
agriculture), a reading confirmed by Egyptology, connecting Osiris with
popular Predynastic (Lunar) vegetations rituals (the "Bull" as consort of
the great cow goddess of the Moon ?). The "Golden Age" or "age of the
gods" could therefore reflect some of the events of the period of the formation of
the two kingdom (the Late Predynastic Period, ca. 3600 - 3300 BCE, or the
Gerzean culture of Naqada II and the Terminal Predynastic Period, ca. 3300
- 3000 BCE). In these last 600 years of prehistory, the role of the male
chief, important from the start of agriculture in Lunar-based, nomadic and
semi-nomadic societies, increased, and the "good king" became an emblem of
power and unity.

Besides its merits, the
text of Plutarch is a Hellenistic composition, adding elements which
cannot be corroborated by the record, although, given the age of the
record, absence of evidence is never evidence of absence. In many ways,
his version remains the most "romantic" rendering of the tale,
opening vista's to syncretism and analogy :

"Osiris is none other than Pluto ..."Plutarch : Peri
Isidos kai Osiridos - first
century CE

The original cult-centre of Osiris is unknown, although the Eastern Delta
(the 9th nome) has been proposed. In the Early Dynastic
Period, Osiris is not attested by name. The paring
of Horus and Seth, essential in the later Osiris myth, is given from the
middle of the First Dynasty (ca. 2900 BCE), i.e. antedating the written
name of Osiris (in the Vth Dynasty Pyramid Texts) by six centuries
or more, suggestive of a broad unwritten oral tradition.

In the IVth and Vth Dynasties of the Old Kingdom, Osiris
assimilated indigenous gods of several places. In Djedu, known as
"per-usir" (Abusir or Busiris, "The House of Osiris") in the Delta, Osiris
replaced Andjety, probably a local king represented as an old man holding
a crook and a flail, and wearing a double-plumed crown. In Djedet, near
Djedu, the soul of Osiris was thought to dwell in the sacred ram,
worshipped as "Ram-Lord-of-Djedet", the Greek "Mendes" (according to
Pindar, the Ram had intercourse with women). It was a powerful symbol of
strength and virility. The Egyptian word for "ram" was "ba", but "Ba" also
meant "soul". In Abedju (Abydos) in Upper Egypt, Osiris superseded
Khentiamentiu. This god of the Abydos necropolis, the
"Foremost of the Westeners" (who ousted Wepwawet, or
"The-Opener-of-the-Ways") is mentioned on seals of Pharaohs Den and Qaa of
the First Dynasty (ca. 3000 - 2800 BCE). Associated with Sokar in Memphis,
Osiris and funerary concerns merged. Osiris is depicted in human form, and
his earliest appearance yet found, shows the head and part of the upper
torso, topped by his hieroglyphic name (IVth Dynasty block from the reign
of Pharaoh Izezi, ca. 2411 - 2378 BCE). His iconography portrays him
wrapped in mummy bandages, with the apparel of Andjety (crown, crook,
flail) and a curved beard (reminiscent of that of a ram or a goat ?).

In the Pyramid Texts, the "magister"
of countless generations of
ante-rational theological reflection, Osirian
theology is already well developed and integrated in the royal cult. The good god has become part of the
Heliopolitan "Ennead" or company of deities, suggestive of a period of
gestation and formation, at least bringing us back to the Terminal Predynastic
Period (3300 - 3000 BCE), when the process of unification is on its way.
This would make the historical appearance of Osiris more or less coincide with
the emergence of writing and the formation of the Pharaonic State of
Egypt.

Heliopolitan ideology had been developed in two steps :

the king incarnates Horus the Elder : the
sky-god incarnates on Earth and each king is a physical manifestation of
the same Horus again, etc. The sky-god assimilates the powers of the
Predynastic "great sorceress" (like the sky cow Nut or Neith) ;

the king is the son of the creator : Re, the
creator, impregnates, as high priest of Re, a woman giving birth to a divine prince corronated as
the "son of Re", the sole mediator between sky and Earth in this life and
the only effective power in the hereafter. As a spirit of light, he
navigates on the Bark of Re for "million of years".

"Horus the Elder" ("Heru Ur") of the Early Dynastic Period is not yet "Horus",
son of Osiris, and thus easily blended with Re, who too strides the skies. The
king, a follower of Horus, is an incarnation of Horus the Elder, but not yet the "son
of Re". In the IVth Dynasty (ca. 2600 - 2487 BCE), the relation between Horus the sky-god,
Re and his son the king became canonical for Egyptian kingship (cf.
Pharaoh Khufu's titulary, the
god Herakhety, "Horus of the Two Horizons"). The Vth and VIth
Dynasties (ca. 2487 - 2198 BCE) evidence the introduction of Horus, son of Isis and Osiris into
the
royal funerary theology, betraying the growing importance of Osiris. Besides being the "son of Re" in this life, the divine
"Lord of the Two Lands" and the "living Horus", was also "Osiris the king" in the afterlife. As
in Old Kingdom theology, only the
king had a "soul", and so nobody except the king could be transformed into Osiris.
The immortal strength and virility of the ram/soul was still a royal
privilege.

"Yet Osiris is more than just a fertility god ; his
presence in cult, myth and legend is unique. He is king of the dead, but
his kingship maintains a vital link to the kingship of the living pharaoh.
That link is evident on the numberless Egyptian monuments and can be seen
in almost any museum where Egyptian objects are to be found. It is the
raison d'être for the most common performative utterance in Egyptian
funerary religion, the offertory." -
Hare,
1999, p.16.

In the Pyramid Texts, largely written in
a pre-rational mode of cognition, there
are unresolved tensions between the salvic paths offered by Osiris and Re,
as well as between certain themes crucial to both myths.
Worse, in a few isolated spells, we read how Osiris is to be kept out of
the tomb (cf. supra) ! Those who wish to enter the domain of Re, are prone to escape
from the kingdom of Osiris and they offer supplications to encounter no
resistance when trying to rise and reach the sky of Re.

In these utterances (spells, hymns, prayers etc.), the "old" traces of the dark, subterranean, "enterred" Lunar
(nightly) Osiris (predating
the Dynastic Period) confront the light of the Solar
"royal" Re and in the ritual, a functional integration occurs. Other
issues, such as the obvious importance of Seth in the royal ascent (holding, together with
Horus, the "ladder of the sky") hand in hand with him murdering Osiris,
are left untouched. The mechanical addition of "Osiris" to the texts
betrays a rewriting of the "old" Heliopolitan corpus, originally
largely dedicated to Re (Breasted,
1972). In
the Pyramid Texts, the process of Osirification had already reached
the stage of maturity and automatism.

In written form, the oldest form of the name "Osiris" appears for the first time in the pyramid of
Unas, with growing prominence during the next
millennium and more. The hieroglyphs used are a seat (Q1) or "ws"
and an eye (D4) or "ir", making "wsir", "Usir" or "Osiris". Osiris, the
one with an "eye" (a verb meaning "to make", "to do") on the "throne" of Egypt,
or "he who makes the throne" (cf.
Budge, 1973, referring to Erman), was the embodiment of the
"soul" or "Ba" of the nation, both in its parts as in general, both in this life as in the next. His early integration in the royal canon
focused on
Atum-Re, is a clear mark of his popularity, even in the Late Old
Kingdom, and points to the supportive (accommodating) role of the popular,
Lunar faith in the new royal ideology. Indeed, as king of the dead, Osiris
guaranteed the reign of his son Horus, the first name of every earthly
monarch. Although royal theology was masculine and Solar, the presence of
Lunar, darker and feminine qualities was not rejected, but (at first)
poorly integrated in the overarching Heliopolitan theology.

"O Osiris, take away all those who
hate King Unas and who speak evilly against his name." Pyramid Texts, § 16.
In the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1938 - 1759 BCE), Osiris is finally
acknowledged as the netherwordly, nocturnal side of Re. Before, Re had
been the sole herald of truth and justice (cf. his daughter Maat). In the
Pyramid Texts, the rapid growth of individualized ethics, as well as
Osiris's assumption of the role of "judge of
the dead" are not yet discernible, although the king is truly Osiris. But, in the rather "provincial" Feudal Age that followed,
Osiris would become the god of righteousness par excellence (cf.
the weighing of the heart against the feather of Maat). If, in the Old
Kingdom, only the divine king had been justified, by the Middle Kingdom,
in principle everybody who could pay for the rituals could be transformed
into an "Osiris NN". Even a poor wretch could be saved if the "soul" had a
"house" (i.e. a tomb or a coffin) and a few spells were known.

The Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts evidence a nightmarish conception
of the Duat, a dismal, sinister, dark and dangerous place. These chthonic
connotations of the kingdom of Osiris were inflated to give way to the
extraordinary power of magic, nullifying the chains of interlocked events.
Every justified individual was "saved" through
magic. Its powers outwitted the enemies lying await in the
afterlife. The deceased was protected against his or her "evils" ("isefet") by the
declaration of innocence placed in the "house of the soul". The
effectiveness of the "divine words" of magic was absolute and irreversible.
But in order to be justified, the deceased was first put on trial : was
his conscience too heavy ? If so, the soul was lost and one's existence
had been pointless.

In the New Kingdom (ca. 1539 - 1075 BCE), deep speculations about the
regeneration of the soul of Re ensue, uniting, in the 6th Hour of theAmduat,
with the body of Osiris, thus completing the theology of the dark,
eclipsed Sun. In this
New Solar Theology (Assmann,
1995), his function involved the
"midnight mystery" or "Ars
obscura" of the Duat. Osiris helps to regenerate the
dynamic power of Re (eternal motility), and so becomes integrated in the cycle of
Re : Osiris is the "body" left in the Duat.

Finally, in the Ptolemaic Period (305 - 30 BCE), Osiris was transformed
into "Serapis" (a composite deity, for Osiris and the Apis Bull merged).
Adding Greek elements, Serapis could be worshipped by native Egyptians and
Greek immigrants alike. Under the Romans, the cult of Osiris and Isis
flourished in Athens, Rome, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Gaul,
Britain, Carthage and the countries of North Africa. Especially Isis
became very popular.

Centuries after the end of the official cult of the Egyptian deities, Osiris and
Isis still had great cult centres, left untouched by the emerging Christian
faith. In 389 CE, the "Serapeum", a
stronghold of
Pagan henotheism, was destroyed by the
Christian Emperor Theodosius I (378 - 395). In 535 BCE, the Isis cult,
surviving on the island of Philae, was closed down by Narses, a general of
Emperor Justinian (527 - 565 CE). He removed the statues of the gods from
their shrines and brought them to Constantinople. The priests were
imprisoned. On the island of Meroe, the cult may have survived a little
while longer. So the cult of these remarkable "netjeru" had been
"officially" in service for
ca. 3.500 years (ca. 3000 BCE - 535 CE), and had, in the last nine
centuries, accommodated an international call. Were they incorporated in
the emergent Christian theology (Osiris and Horus in the figure of Christ
and Isis in the "theotokos", the "Mother of God") ?
Probably so, but not without changing their nature.
"The secret of the enormous popularity enjoyed by Osiris from the New
Kingdom to the end of the Pharaonic period lay in the hope of eternal
life that he held out to everyone who had made at least some
preparations for death." - Watterson,
2003, p.69, my italics.

As soon as, throughout the variety of Osirian myths, an "Egyptian prototype" is
discerned, a series of "dramatic moments" or a sequence of
crucial events emerge.
The record suggests a human tale, a recognizable story-line, moving from a
state of goodness and plenty, to a state of evil and want, to return to a
state of greater goodness and everlasting happiness. These narrative
features give
the Osirian myth "a stronger sense of uniqueness and
linearity, than for instance, the rising and setting of the sun or the
stars" (Hare,
1999, p.15). The irreversible episodes of the Osiris myth the assassination,
dismemberment, scattering, reassembly, reanimation, resurrection and coronation of Osiris. His
murder only takes place once, and the Egyptians were reluctant to address
the issue directly. There is no perpetual repetition, but an everlasting
"final" state : Osiris, king of the Duat, is for ever and ever
the same (even
after Atum destroys the world - cf.
Egyptian eschatology).

the Lunar Phases and the
Mystery of Osiris

Meaning
of the Lunar Phases

NEW MOON
1th Quater / Isis & Nephthys

darkness at its maximum, initiation of external
phase, gathering of impulse

IIth Quater / Horus Avenging

sustained efforts to maximalize cycle, the means
to do so manifest

FULL MOON
IIIth Quater / Horus & Osiris King

light at its maximum, realization of intent,
initiation of internal phase, culmination of impulse

IVth Quater / Set

withdrawal of the light, sustained efforts to
eliminate components

Although projected
upon the Lunar cycle for commemorative reasons, the legend of Osiris has
no "internal" cycle, but represents a linear process defined by a clear
beginning and a final end. This process may be repeated, but each time the same
linear sequence is run through. This remarkable difference with
the Atum-Re cycle and its widely discussed neheh-time (eternal recurrence),
coupled with his enduring popularity, mystery and magic, make Osiris an
outstanding factor in the Egyptian pantheon, for in a way all deities
except Osiris share in the Solar fate of rise and fall. They are part
of eternal repetition, whereas Osiris gives everlasting sameness
(djedet-time).

In the Heliopolitan Ennead, the dramatis personae of these myths belong to the last generation
of gods : Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Seth. The conditions of order (Air, life
-Shu- and Water, truth -Tefnut/Maat-) as well as the generative powers of
"sky" (Nut) and "Earth" (Geb) are already in place. The last generations
introduces human affairs, albeit in a "divine" format (a "Golden
Age" when
the gods reigned on a mythical Earth).

The dynamism between these anthropomorph divinities, who act like
family members,
focalizes on Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, the avenger who triumphs
over his evil uncle Seth, the rejuvenator of Osiris, who resurrects his
father and becomes the justified king of Egypt, source of unity and peace. Taking into consideration
many known sources, the following picture emerges :

Osiris is the good king of Egypt : the
god-king Osiris
lives on Earth and establishes all good things, he brings civilization to
Egypt and is loved by all, except Seth and his gang, those who wish to
usurp the throne of Egypt by sheer might ;

Osiris assassinated, dismembered and scattered
: Osiris is
tricked & killed by his brother Seth, his body dismembered and scattered all over Egypt ;

Osiris reassembled and reanimated by Isis : his wife and
sister Isis recollects his body (except his penis) and revivifies it with
the help of the gods ;

Osiris inseminates Isis who gives birth to Horus :
before the slumbering Osiris moves to the netherworld, Isis, the Great Sorceress, is able
to take his seed and give birth to Horus ;

Osiris avenged by his son : although
persecuted and sodomized by Seth, Horus grows up with the help of
Isis and prepares to avenge his father by fighting Seth (loosing his
left eye but crushing Seth's genitals). He triumphs over his evil uncle,
who henceforward is forced to carry Osiris ;

Osiris restored by Horus : his Left
Eye made well by Thoth, Horus is declared King of Egypt and descends
into the Duat to bring the Eye of Wellness to his father, so as to restore
him completely (turning him into a supportive god of the just) ;

Osiris ascends as "king of the dead" : Osiris
reassembled, reanimated and fully restored by Horus, ascends to the sky
(of the Duat) and
is enthroned as its king for ever and ever. In this capacity, he
judges the dead and nobody is able to move further without being judged
by him. He is the guarantee, on yonder side of existence, of rejuvenation
and an eternal life featuring the best of this life. His is the perfect
kingdom of darkness.

Note that Osiris escapes, like the precreational
Nun, the cyclic and endless repetitions of Re and
the other stars, most of them rising and setting in accordance with the
law of eternal recurrence initiated by Atum-Kheprer. Osiris thus relates to Nun, to the primordial waters of
precreation, deemed limitless, inert, dark, lifeless and gloomy. Nun preexists
creation and is separated from it. The kingdom of Osiris is part of
creation, but separated from its Earth and sky. Creation itself, conceived as a living
organism (cf. hylezoism), has a body of generation, or "Osiris", and a
spirit ("akh") of order ("Maat"), i.e. the eternal recurrence implied by
the first time of Atum-Re. Like Nun, separated from creation by inertia, Osiris is separated from the living
by death, and rules the world from the underworld.

►
Three considerations to conclude this brief introduction.

Firstly, to encompass the whole range of Osirian beliefs (namely from the
beginning of the Pharaonic Period untill the last strongholds of its cult
abroad) is beyond
the limitations of this paper. Instead, let us focus on a selection of the evidence
available in the Pyramid Texts and by doing so try to isolate the original core
of the theology and this by using the oldest historical evidence available (namely
between ca. 2348 - 2205 BCE).

Being first, complete as well as canonical, the Unas text testify of the
importance of Osiris in the royal cult, focused on Re. Although integrated in
the latter's "Ennead" or group of nine manifestations, the cult of Osiris
became national in the Middle Kingdom only. But it was already popular
enough to be part of the royal canon from the start. So from the XIIth Dynasty (ca. 1938 -
1759 BCE) onwards, the
pilgrimage to Abydos, where the head of Osiris was kept (in the Osireon ?), became
popular among
Egyptians wishing a good place in the afterlife. Discovering the
rudiments of Osirian theology, before it became popular and was
"harmonized" with Solar faith (Atum-Re & Amun-Re), will allow us to put
into evidence the bottom layer of Osirian faith and confirm the dramatic
sequence of the latter tale.

Secondly, Osirian faith initiated the offertory and canon as a sacred separation and
sublimation. All offerings are assimilated by the offer of Horus, who
brings his healed Left Eye to Osiris and so fully restore him. Hence, all
offerings are the Eye of Horus (given to Osiris to heal him). When Osiris
is fully resurrected, he efficiently acts on behalf of Horus, and allows
the divine king and flood-maker to celebrate the yearly return of the
life-giving waters, emerging, in the South of Egypt in mid July, out of
the netherworldly Nun.
All offerings serve rebirth and rejuvenation. By offering Maat, the king
serves the rebirth of creation.

Thirdly, the validity of an exclusive funerary interpretation of the
Pyramid Texts (or for that matter of the complete corpus of
canonical
religious texts, such as the Coffin Texts, the Book of Coming
out into the Day and the Amduat), taught by
Morenz,
Piankoff,
Mercer,
Frankfort,
Faulkner,
Assmann,
Hornung and
Allen, has to be
addressed : is there a mystical dimension or direct
experiential
contact with the divine beyond the first
three studied by Egyptology (Assmann, 2002) ? This is not "esoterism"
defined as "difficult to access", but as direct spiritual experience.
After cross-cultural comparison and participant observation (cf. mysticology) and although highly subjective
in each individual case, a general pattern is detectable. Esoterism is then the
knowledge and practice of an inner development along spiritual lines,
involving a direct contact with the ontological foundation of reality.
The universal characteristics of the religious, sacred,
numinous, mystical peak-experience have been summarised as follows (cf. Pahnke &
Richards, 1972, in
Tart, 1975) :

purification
: proper preparation to the spiritual operation demands
physical, psychological, social and moral discipline and is often
operationalized as sensoric reduction, typical EEG-frequency patterns
and the invocation of archetypal, sacred images and sounds (cf.
neurotheology) ;

actionalization :
the fusion with the Divine, eventuating a "return" to the
world, brings an outstanding increase in ethical awareness,
unconditional compassion and a direct action changing the world for
the better.

Compare these stages with those
of the cave mysteries of the Upper Palaeolithic :

intro : the tunnel :
the process of differentiation from light to darkness ;

sanctum : the
"rock cathedral" : the secluded place of the mystery of the hidden light
;

exit :the return : the process of integration from darkness to light.

Concerning Egyptian religion, four
dimensions seem appropriate :

the cultic : the local, political residence of the deities,
either as belonging to a particular place and/or as state deities,
functioning as symbols for the political identity of the collective ;

the cosmic :
the emergence, structure & dynamics of the sphere of their
action ;

the mythic :
the sacred tradition, or "what is said about the gods", their
cultural memory as set down in myths, names, genealogies etc.

the
mystic : the direct experience of the deities or the objective
spiritual realities encountered by the divine king, his priests and
the worshippers.

Let us focus on the fourth dimension. In the context of the New Solar Theology in general and
Atenism in particular, the question can been posed, rather
ironically, whether Egyptian religion
had religious subjects other than the dead ? Answered
affirmatively,
the role of Osirian initiation may be
touched upon (cf. the Osireon). Akhenaten's return to the "pure" form of
Solar worship allows us to work out the inner dynamics of the this-life
mysteries exclusively celebrated by Pharaoh in his royal cult, "mysticism" being defined as the
direct experience of
the Divine."(Akenaten) :
The words of Re are before thee, (---) of my august father,
who taught me their {essence}, (...) them to me. (...)
It was known in my heart,
opened to my face, I understood (---)

(Ramose) :
"Thy monuments shall endure like the heavens, for thy duration is
like Aton therein. The existence of thy monuments is like the existence
of the heavens ; thou art the Only One of {Aton}, in possession of his
designs."Breasted,
2001, §§ 945-946 - tomb of the vizier Ramose - original lost -
Akhenaten justifying Atenism to Ramose by referring to his personal
& exclusive mystical experience - Beasted notes : "These
accompanying inscriptions are directly below the upper row, depicting
the decoration, and belong with a lower band connected with the same
incident. They are only in ink and very faded ; I believe my copy of
them is the first made. They have never been published." (p.389)

Atenism rejects the "hidden"
and the "dark", and so cannot exist together with Osiris and Amun. It
eliminates the "hidden" side of Re, returns to the exclusive worship of
the lightland of the double horizon (cf. Ra-Horakhety),
and rejects all possible netherwordly interpretation by eliminating the
Duat and bringing the sky on Earth, namely in Akhetaten, Akhenaten's City
of the Aten. This is the Solar economy pushed to beyond its limits. Its sole
mooring-post being the king.

And the people ? They secretly continued to worship Osiris, even in
Akhetaten, and likely elsewhere. Did they remember the failures of
kingship (namely at the end of the Old Kingdom) ? Or did they disbelieve
Akhenaten ? If so, they still obeyed. Perhaps, in their own hearts, the
certainty of a good place in the kingdom of Osiris gave greater comfort
than the "new" heaven of Akhetaten ? Indeed, the second-best, Lunar heaven
of the commoners had not lost its alluring power, quite on the contrary.
The apogee of Osiris was yet to come.

In Osirian faith,
the mystic dimension is "demotized". But how could commoners
directly experience and "see" the deities ? For Moret (1922), "mystery" implied "voluntary death",
a "psychological death" experienced before
actual physical death. This "dead posture" preludes spiritual
rebirth or "peret-em-heru" : going out into the day ... For
Wente (1982), the New Kingdom Amduat
and Book of Gates bring "the future into the
present", so that rebirth "could have been
genuinely experienced in this life now". And this, most likely
through initiations (for the priests), festivals, pilgrimage & personal piety. In these latter contexts,
Osirian faith allowed non-royals to have direct spiritual access to the
Duat, the world of magic and of the dead. The Books of the Netherworld are
usually very explicit about this, but Egyptology has yet to take them
serious. Of course, only a small elite had the necessary education ...

"He who know these words will approach those who
dwell in the Netherworld. It is very very useful for a man upon Earth."Amduat,
concluding text of the Second Hour.

"The mysterious Cavern of the West where the Great
God and his crew rest in the Netherworld. This is executed with their
names similar to the image which is drawn in the East of the Hidden
Chamber of the Netherworld. He who knows their names while being upon
Earth will know their seats in the West as a contented one with his seat
in the Netherworld. He will stand among the Lord of Provision as one
justified by the Council of Re who reckons the differences. It will be
useful for him upon Earth ..."Amduat,
introductory text of the Ninth Hour.

How can these texts not point to this-life occult knowledge ? And once
we acknowledge the presence of a mystical dimension, we beg the question
of how to operate the magic ? Is there a particular series of rituals
enabling oneto experiencethe objective spiritual realities
behind three thousand years of spirituality today ? Of course, the
first thing to do is to lift the funerary restrictions put on the
available corpora. Although found in tombs, they move beyond
funerary concerns (cf.
Wente, 1982), but also show us an
initiatic and experiential register, albeit in ante-rational terms.

Distinguish
between psi-events (parapsychology),
occultism (knowledge of the
invisible worlds) and
mysticism (direct experience of the
Divine). Although in immature instances of meta-nominal experience
(i.e. those falling outside empirico-formal consciousness), these phenomena
cannot be distinguished, let us avoid adjectives as "shamanic" or "shamanistic" (cf.
Naydler, 2005), and prefer "ecstatic",
which is more neutral and devoid of the historical connotations implied by
historical Shamanism (the art & science of controlled trance). The
word "ecstatic" comes from the Greek "ex", "out" + "stasis", "standstill"
or "statikè", "art of weighing".

In Ancient Egypt, the
variety of ecstatic experiences covers personal piety (offerings, prayers,
festivals, mystery plays), magic (psi-events), the occult (initiation, entering and
leaving the Duat) and mysticism proper (the spirituality of the king and
his high priests, meeting the deity "face to face" or transforming into
one). Unfortunately, I must strongly disagree with one of my most rewarding sources of
inspiration, Erik Hornung, who wrote about the Egyptians :

Recently,
Naydler (2005), by suspending the
funerary interpretation, made clear that the Pyramid Texts in
general and the Unas texts in particular, reveal an experiential
dimension, and so also represent this-life initiatic experiences
consciously sought by the divine king (cf.
Egyptian initiation). These may be
classified in two categories : Osirian rejuvenation (cf. the texts of the
burial-chamber), already at work in the Sed festival, and Heliopolitan
ascension (cf. the texts in the antechamber). In the New Kingdom, Lunar and Solar spiritual economies were refined
: the way of Osiris in the Osireon and the Netherworld Books (cf.
Amduat), and the way of Re in the New Solar Theology of both
Atenism and Amenism. Both the Amduat (cf. the
6th Hour) and the Pyramid Texts testify that the core of the
Osirian Ceremony involved rejuvenation (found in the pit of darkness
- cf. the Ars Obscura). In the
Memphis Theology of Ptah, a synthesis between Re and Osiris was
sought and found in the idea of creation by the heart (mind) and tongue
(speech) of Ptah, of whom Atum-Re and Osiris are theophanies.

Elsewhere, the reader may find my
epistemological survey of
mysticism. In the context of this paper,
the term "ecstasy" is defined as the class of
events pertaining to rapture, the ravishing experience of sublime delight,
bliss and joy, accompanied by intense emotion, noetic clarity, creativity and (stages or stations
of) trance. One moves outside the "nominal" ego (defined in
terms of three spatial, one temporal and one semiotic dimension) and "enters" the realm of
the Higher Self, i.e. a sixth-dimesional witnessing focus of consciousness, allowing for the
direct perception of objective spiritual realities, hidden from ordinary
consciousness as dreamless sleep is hidden from waking (indeed so far
hidden, for Socrates to compare the former with physical death).

Remark :

The use of capitals in words
as "Absolute", "God" or "Divine", points to
a rational context (i.e. how these appear in a theology conducted in the
rational mode of thought - cf. cognition,
neurophilosophy
& theonomy). Hence, when these words are used in the context of Ancient
Egyptian ante-rational thought (which, as a cultural
form, was mythical, pre-rational & proto-rational), this restriction is lifted.
Hence, words such as "god", "the god", "gods", "goddesses", "pantheon" or
"divine" are not capitalized.

01 Evil or the end of the Golden Age.

Osiris is heir to the throne of Geb, and so the king of the Two Lands.

"Geb's heir (in) the kingship of the Two Lands.
Seeing his worth, he gave (it) to him. To lead the lands to good fortune.
He placed this land into his hand. Its water, its wind, its plants, all
its cattle, all that flies, all that alights, its reptiles and its desert
game. (All that) were given to the son of Nut, and the Two Lands are
rejoicing !"Great Hymn to Osiris, New Kingdom,
stela C286 - Louvre.

Two wooden barks were found near the Great Pyramid of king Khufu. They
were used by the deceased king in the netherworld. Ferried
over to the eastern horizon, he would arrive in the First Time of the
gods. Indeed, in the lightland of the horizon, the transformation ("kheper") from soul (Ba) to
spirit (Akh) took place. After being transformed in the horizon, Pharaoh
arrived in heaven as a god.

"The Nurse Canal is opened.
The Winding Waterway is flooded.
The Fields of Reeds are filled with water.
Thereon I, king Teti, am ferried over to yonder eastern sky,
to the place where the gods fashioned me,
wherein I was born, new and young."Pyramid Texts, §§ 343 - 344.
The Golden Age refers to a period untained by evil ("isefet"). The First
Time, as the onset for time, is wholly luminous and has a dynamical
symmetry (whereas Nun is an inert symmetry). The internal pressures of the
Ennead, caused by the presence of Seth, the symmetry-break, resulted in the emanation of Horus (the Elder) and Re. Both
sky-gods initiated the Golden Age, the rule of the gods, interpreted in
Osirian faith as the kingdom of Osiris on Earth. The mere presence of Seth
in the Ennead was not sufficient to end the Golden Age (in
precreation), but makes the Ennead dynamical. Seth represents an opposing
kingdom. If the rule of Osiris can be linked with the life of the fertile
lands bordering the Nile, then Seth is the barren desert encompassing this
narrow but long stretch of vegetation. Both Horus and Seth assisted the
king when ascending. He was the unity of both, and embodied Egypt (Horus
ruled Lower Egypt and Seth Upper Egypt).

When Seth murdered Osiris, the Golden Age on Earth ended. No longer would
Egypt be ruled by the gods, but by their offspring. The relationship is
however not incarnational (Re would not incarnate in Horus the king), but
genetico-magical. In Osirian faith, the conception of Horus is magical,
but involves Isis & Osiris (cf. infra). In Heliopolitanism, Re
overshadowed his highpriest to impregnate the mother of the future king,
the "son of Re". The world is always on the brink of desaster,
for although Seth (after Horus was vindicated) was condemned to carry
Osiris and assist Re (in the 7th Hour of the
Amduat), he nevertheless continued to be a dangerous god,
associated with natural and moral evil. To know where he is and what he is
doing is better than to send him in the desert and turn one's back to him. As the
"netjer" of all dark desires and disruptive emotional states, his presence
teaches one to hold desires in check and by doing so understand their
overall evolutionary process. Always willing to cause havoc, Seth remains
the friend of evildoers.

02
The suffering of Osiris.

"You (Ladder of the god) have come seeking your brother Osiris, for his brother Seth has
thrown him down on his side in yonder side of (the desert of) Gehesty."Pyramid Texts, § 972.
"Isis cries out to You (king Merenre), Nephthys calls to You. The Great
Mooring-post removes (any) impediment for You as (for) Osiris in his
suffering."Pyramid Texts, § 872."Wepwawet opens a way for
me, Shu lifts me up, the Souls of On set up a stairway for me in order to
reach the above, and Nut puts her hand on me just as she did for Osiris on
the day when he died."Pyramid Texts, § 1090."To say : The djed-pillar
of the Day-bark is released for its Lord, the djed-pillar of
the Day-bark is released for its protector. Isis comes and Nephthys comes,
one of them from the West and one of them from the East, one of them as
screeching falcon, one of them as a kite. They have found Osiris, his
brother Seth having laid him low in Nedit ; when Osiris said :
'Get away from me !', when his name became Sokar. They prevent You from rotting in accordance with this your name of Anubis.
They prevent your putrefaction from dripping to the ground in
accordance with this your name of 'Jackal of Upper Egypt'. They prevent
the smell of your corpse from becoming foul in accordance with this your
name of Horus of Haty.They prevent Horus of the East from
putrefying. They prevent Horus Lord of Patricians from putrefying. They
prevent Horus of the Duat from putrefying. They prevent Horus Lord
of the Two Lands from putrefying, and Seth will never be free from
carrying You, O Osiris." Pyramid Texts, §§ 1255 - 1258.
The Egyptians avoided to address the murder of Osiris directly. In the
same way, they often refused to call Seth by his name, and instead called
him : the malevolent, the evil one, the adversary, the enemy, the rebel
... In the same way as they, to neutralize them, occasionally modified,
suppressed or replaced (by anodyne substitutes) hieroglyphs deemed
dangerous in sensitive areas of the tomb (like the sarcophagus chamber),
the Egyptian scribes avoided to invoke the most terrible of events (the
end of the Golden Age) as well as the name of the culpit. The rules of
sympathetic magic taught them so. Nevertheless, the suffering of Osiris
was terrible. To be tricked, drowned, found and then cut into scattered pieces, makes the point
of Seth's terrible powers of seduction and cruelty.

In Plutarch's account, Seth became envious of Osiris and secretly measured
his body. He made a beautiful chest to these measurements. Bringing it to
the banqueting hall, everbody was pleasured at the sight of it. Seth
promised that whoever fitted inside could have it as a gift. Everybody
tried, but only Osiris fitted in. When he lay down inside, Seth slammed
the lid and sealed it with lead. He cast it into the Nile and it was
carried downstream to the great sea. Isis was so forlorn, that her tears
caused the Nile to flood (the night when the Nile rose is known as the
"Night of the Teardrop"). The coffin had washed ashore on the Phoenician
coast at Byblos and taken root in a tamarisk tree, set up as a column in
the palace of the king. After many trials, Isis brought the body of Osiris
back to Egypt. It is at this point that Seth seized it again and
dismembered it into 14 parts. He scattered the severed limbs all over the
land and threw his penis into the Nile. In this way, the body of Osiris
became one with the soil of Egypt.

03 Reassemby and reanimation of the body of Osiris.

"Isis and Nephthys have seen and
found You ..."Pyramid Texts, § 584.
"(I have seen !) says Isis. 'I have found
!', says
Nephthys, for they have seen Osiris on his side on the bank [...]. Arise
[...] my brother, for I have sought You."Pyramid Texts, §§ 2144 - 2145."Your two sisters Isis and Nephthys come to You
(so) that they may
make You hale."
Pyramid Texts, § 628." (...) there has been done for him what was done for his father Osiris
on that day of re-uniting the bones, of making good the soles, and of
extending the feet. Pyramid Texts, § 1368."Nephthys has collected all your members for
You in this her name
of 'Seshat, Lady of Builders'. (She) has made them hale for You, You
having been given to your mother Nut in her name of 'Sarcophagus'. She
has embraced You in her name of 'Coffin', and You have been brought to her
in her name of 'Tomb'." Pyramid Texts, § 616.
Isis and Nephthys represent the waxing (first and second quater) and
waning (third and fourth quater) light of the Moon, associated with
Osiris. From the New Moon onwards, the disk of the Moon is crescent.
Culminating at Full Moon, it returns to its waning phase. The waxing phase is
Isis, the warm-hearted mother, concerned, devoted and inventive. The
waning phase is her sister, the "Lady of the House", cold, distant,
somewhat detached from the sorrows of this world and quite passive.
Married to Seth, legend has it she was in love with Osiris and had Anubis
as his son. Cast out by his mother, who feared the violent wrath of her
husband Seth, Anubis was taken in by Isis. He became her loyal assistant
in all matters, especially regarding the reassembly and mummification of
the body of Osiris.

In nearly all iconographic representations of the myth, Isis and Nepthys
are mentioned together and appear likewise. This points to the
complementarity of both archetypes and to the interlocked nature of these
two natural differentials. There is no waxing without waning and vice
versa. The task of these wailing sisters is double : on the one hand,
they seek and find the 14 parts of the body of Osiris, with the exception
of the penis, and on the other hand, they make the body healthy, implying
its organic reunification. This by embracing him.

In this stage of the myth, the iconography of the body of Osiris is typical. Always depicted anthropomorph, his
body is wrapped in mummy bandages from which his arms emerge to hold the
crook and the flail. These are the emblems of kingship of the living
Horus, and of Osiris, the king of the dead. The body of Osiris has become a ritual
object, moreover, it is a talisman (a consecreated object charged with
magical intent). When reanimated by Isis, the body is in a "vegetating"
condition and represented lying on a funerary bier. The phallus was
carefully bound up to simulate erection (cf. Atum masturbating the world
in to existence).

In the classical story recorded by Plutarch, Isis and Nephthys went searching for all the parts
of the body of Osiris. Whenever they found one, they performed funerary
rituals and erected a tomb. But Isis could not find his male member.
Unfortunately, thrown into the Nile, it had been eaten by the Nile Carp (Lepidotus),
Phagrus and Oxyrynchus fish ! Hence forward, these fish were considered
unclean. So in the place of the penis of Osiris, Isis made a likeness
of it and consecrated this magical phallic simulacrum. She breathed life into the re-membered body of Osiris and
reanimated it. Isis, hovering over the mummy of Osiris in the form of a
kite, a small graceful hawk,
begets Horus. At the Winter solstice, along with the
early blossom & flowers, the child Horus (Harpocrates) is born.
Plutarch adds that the Egyptians celebrated this birth around the Spring
equinox (namely around the time when he was crowned king ?).

04 Horus, the avenger of his
father.

"Your sister Isis comes to You (Osiris) rejoicing
for love of You. You have placed her on your phallus and your seed issues
into her, she being ready as Sothis. Horus Soped has come forth from You
as Horus who is in Sothis." Pyramid Texts, § 632."Remember, Seth, and put in your heart this word
which Geb spoke, this threat which the gods made against You in the
Mansion of the Prince in On, because You threw Osiris to the Earth ! When
You said, O Seth : 'I have never done this to him !', so that You might
have power thereby, having been saved, and that You might prevail over
Horus ... When You said, O Seth : 'It was he who attacked me !', when
there came into being this his name of 'Earth-attacker' ... When You said,
O Seth : 'It was he who kicked me !', when there came into being this his
name of Orion, long of leg and lengthy of stride, who presides over Upper
Egypt."Pyramid Texts, §§ 957 - 959.

"O Osiris
king Teti, mount up
to Horus, betake yourself to him, do not be far from him. Horus
has come that he may recognize You. He has smitten Seth for You bound, and
You are his Ka (of Seth). Horus has driven him off for You, for he swims bearing
You, he lifts up one (Osiris) who is greater than he in You, and his
followers have seen You, that your strength is greater than his, so that
they cannot thwart You."Pyramid Texts, §§ 586 - 588."Horus has cried out
because of his Eye, Seth has cried out because of his testicles, and there
leaps up the Eye of Horus, who had fallen on yonder side of the Winding
Waterway, so that it may protect itself from Seth. Thoth saw it on yonder
side of the Winding Waterway when the Eye of Horus leapt up on yonder side
of the Winding Waterway and fell on Thoth's wing on yonder side of the
Winding Waterway. O You gods who cross over on the wing of Thoth to yonder
side of the Winding Waterway, to the eastern side of the sky, in order to
dispute with Seth about this Eye of Horus : I will cross with You upon the
wing of Thoth to yonder side of the Winding Waterway, to the eastern side
of the sky, and I will dispute with Seth about this Eye of Horus."Pyramid Texts, §§ 594 - 596.

With Horus, "He upon high", all possible Enneads or companies of deities
"existing" in the "zep tepi" or First Time, are completed. Both
Heliopolitan, Hermopolitan and Memphite schemes eventually end up with
Horus as king of the physical universe. He is the "10th", crowning
actuality, the system of "sky", "Earth", "Duat" and "horizon" (what later
qabalists would call "Olam ha-Assiah", with its "Malkuth" or "kingdom").
And so, Horus is the living king of Egypt, the "great house" or "Pharaoh"
of the Two Lands, both a living Horus and the unique son of Re. As such, he
offers Maat to his father, and as Horus he keeps the land pacified. He is
the Great Eye that sees it all, the absolute Witness within actual,
relative and abyssimal existence (a world constantly at the edge of the
yawning space called "chaos").

The Egyptian texts about the conflict between Horus and Seth are dispersed
over several different periods and form a mass of disjointed elements. In
The Contendings of Horus and Seth, the longest of the New Kingdom
stories, the central theme is Horus's superiority over his rival Seth in
contending over the throne, usurped by his uncle and previously occupied
by his father Osiris.

"(There came to pass) the adjudication of Horus and
Seth, mysterious in their forms and mightiest of the princes and magnates
who had ever come into being. Now it was a young (god) who was seated in
the presence of the Universal Lord, claiming the office of his father
Osiris, beautiful in his appearances, the son of Ptah ..."

Historically, the Followers of Horus (Herakleopolis) and the
Followers of Seth (Naqada) probably represent two rival Upper Egyptian kingdoms
engaged in the battles terminating Predynastic Egypt (cf. the Terminal
Predynastic Period, the last three hundred years before the unification
dated at ca. 3000 BCE, if not a little earlier). The Followers of Horus
finally won, marched North and united the country (under Aha, Menes,
Narmer). Memphis, situated at the point
where the Nile forks into the Delta, represented the "Balance of the Two
Lands" (cf. Memphis Theology), the place of coronation of the divine king, who is a living Horus
and the son of Ptah.

"Horus who is in Sothis" clearly refers to the agricultural, Sothic cycle,
crucial to the economical survival of Egypt and intimately interlaced with
the ideology of divine (read : magical) kingship. Indeed, only the living
Horus guarantees, year after year, a "good Nile" (or adequate flooding,
i.e. not too much and not enough water), conceived as originating in the
cave of Hapy and surging up from the Duat. But, the flood and the
inundation, as in effect all waters, were assimilated to Nun.

In the story told by Plutarch, Isis hid her child in the marshes of the
Delta. The high reeds of the river god Hapy protected him from Seth. When
he grew up, he challenged his murderous uncle to mortal combat. This
ceaseless, monumental dual, lasting for eighty years and hinted at in all
canonical texts, was never final. Horus lost his left eye and Seth his
testicles. At the end of the day, the tribunal of the gods had to decide
who had won. They gave one part to Seth and another to Horus, but this did
not settle the matter, for Horus claimed the throne of Osiris, who had
been king over the whole of Egypt. Eventually they ceded the throne of
Egypt entirely to Horus and so was Osiris avenged and Maat restored.
However, the "weary" Osiris had yet to be fully restored ...

05
The restoration of Osiris by Horus.

"What You (Osiris king
Unas)
have eaten is an Eye, and your belly is rounded out with it. Your son
Horus has released it for You that You may live by means of it."Pyramid Texts, § 192.
"Horus has set for You (Osiris) your foe under You that he may lift You up. Do not let go of him
! You shall come to your (former) condition, for the
gods have knit together your face for You. Horus has split open
your eye for You that You may see with it in its name of 'Opener of
Roads'. Your foe is smitten by the children of Horus, they have made
bloody his beating, they have punished him, he having been driven off, and
his smell is evil ..."Pyramid Texts, §§ 642 - 643.
"To say : O Osiris king Teti,
stand up ! Horus comes and claims You from the gods, for Horus has loved
You, he has provided You with his Eye, Horus has attached his
Eye to You. Horus has split open your eye for You that You may see
with it, the gods have knit up your face for You, for they have loved You.
Isis and Nephthys have made You hale, and Horus is not far from You, for
You are his Ka. May your face be well-disposed to him ! Hasten ! Receive the word of Horus, with which
You will be well pleased.
Listen to Horus, for it will not be harmful to You. He has caused the gods
to serve You." Pyramid Texts, §§ 609 - 611.

"To say : O Atum,
this one here is your son Osiris whom You have caused to be restored that
he may live."Pyramid Texts, §§ 167."Horus has revived You in this your name of Andjeti. Horus has given
You his strong Eye. He has given it to You (so) that You may be strong and
that every foe of yours may fear You."Pyramid Texts, §§ 614."Horus has caused the gods to mount up to You, he has given them to
You (so) that they may make You illumine your face. Horus has set You in front of the gods
and has caused You to take possession of every thing that is yours. Horus has
attached himself to You and he will never part from You." Pyramid Texts, § 613.

"To say : The sky reels, the Earth quakes. Horus comes
!
Thoth appears ! They raise Osiris from upon his side and make him stand up
in front of the Two Enneads." Pyramid Texts, § 956.
In the texts, we often read how Osiris went away, fell asleep and died.
His salvation is described in complementary terms : he came back, he
awakened and lives again. When Horus resuscitates his father (as it were
empowering the vegetative soul of Osiris with the Eye), the latter
recognizes Seth's real nature and does not let him escape. Seth, the
inertia of Earth, is put underneath the fertile, black Earth of Osiris,
and has to carry the latter.

In
the XVIIIth Dynasty, it was custom to make a figure of Osiris as a mummy
from a linen bag stuffed with corn. When watered, the corn sprouted
through the meshes of the bag ... Osiris was seen to grow. Osiris, the
dead king, was mummified and descended into the Duat. There, he is the inert,
potential, vegetative power of nature. He is helpless, and embodies inert,
dormant, passive potential. By restoring Osiris, Seth is made inert and
subservient to his brother, who becomes an effective spirit of life.

After
Horus vanquished his enemies and ascended to the throne of Egypt, he
visits his father in the Duat (proof of the ecstatic this-life
rituals involving the netherworld ? cf.
Naydler, 2005). He brings him the good news, namely the
re-establishment of Maat, the order of things. To his father, Horus brings
the North wind (the prevailing wind in Egypt, which cools and heralds the
annual inundation) and his Eye of Wellness. He also opens his mouth. This
is done with an adze, representing the Great Bear, a constellation of
Seth. Then
Osiris becomes one with the soul of the original Osiris. He can send out
his Ba and set himself in motion. His vegetative state is overwon, and
Osiris becomes fully aware and whole again.

We see how the body of Osiris is subjected to three crucial transformations.
In the texts, these registers are often mixed and cross-referenced :

dismemberment, scattering : death & dispersal of the actual body of
Osiris ;

reassembly,
reanimation :
ritual constitution of the mummy of Osiris, the "sah" ;

The restoration brought by Horus, allowed the "sah"
(the mummy of the body of the original Osiris) to be fully restored to
health and ready for its ascension (the transformation of the Ba of Osiris
into an Akh, a luminous, effective spirit). This was effectuated through
the Eye of Horus, at work on three registers (already in place at the time
of the Pyramid Texts) :

sum total of
offerings
: all possible stuff placed on the table of
offerings ;

offer of
offerings (offertorium) :
the Eye as the standard for all possible offerings ;

offer of communion (canon) : the "embrace" as communion
with the Eye.

The power ("sekhem") of the
Wedjat Eye, coupled with the magical "Sa" of the Ritual of
Opening the Mouth, raised the animated but vegetative, weary
Osiris (horizontal) to full waking consciousness (vertical), preparing him
for his final journey to heaven, the plane of the Akhu, the Pantheon and
the luminous spirits.

The king, in mystical embrace with the Eye, was
addressed as "Osiris King NN", and by the Middle Kingdom, everyman
could be an "Osiris NN". Communion with the soul of Osiris, abiding in its
"sah", comes by receiving the Eye of Horus, by
Opening the Mouth and by eating the Eye, as Osiris has. This
transformation makes one share in the salvation of
Osiris. When justified, the deceased, or the ecstatic, enter the heaven of Osiris.
Perpetual
torment awaits the unjust ...

06 The ascension of Osiris.

"To say : The sky thunders, the Earth quakes, because of the dread of
You, O
Osiris, when You ascend." Pyramid Texts, § 549."To say
: O You gods of the West,
gods of the East, gods of the South, gods of the North ! These four pure
reed-floats which You set down for Osiris when he ascended to the sky, so that he might ferry over to the firmament with his son Horus
at his fingers, so that he might bring him up and cause him to appear as a
great god in the firmament, set them down for me, king Unas !"
Pyramid Texts, §§ 464 - 465."Raise yourself, O Osiris, for Seth
has raised himself, he has heard the threat of the gods who spoke about
the god's father (Osiris, father of Horus). Isis has your arm, O Osiris. Nephthys has
your hand, so go between them. The sky is given to You, the Earth
is given to You, and the Field of Reeds, the Mounds of Horus, and the
Mounds of Seth. The towns are given to You and the nomes assembled for You,
says Atum, and he who speaks about it is Geb."Pyramid Texts, §§ 960 - 961."O
Heftenet, mother of the gods ! Give me
your hand, take my hand and take me to the sky, just as You
took Osiris to the sky." Pyramid Texts, § 1419."The doors of the sky are opened.
The doors of the firmament are thrown open for Osiris.
He goes forth at dawn and bathes in the Field of Reeds."Pyramid Texts, § 984. "Behold, he has come as Orion, behold, Osiris has come as
Orion ..."Pyramid Texts, § 819."O Osiris king Teti, You are a mighty god, and there
is no god like You."Pyramid Texts, § 619.
As an Akh, the luminous spirit of life and rebirth itself, Osiris the king
rules over the Duat and represents a special dispensation within the order
of nature ordained by the gods. Once seated on his throne, he is able to
send his souls to his living son Horus, the king of the Two Lands. This
will, year after year, trigger a "good Nile" and hence material plenty for
Egypt. This fills the granaries of the temples and stimulates the divine
king to erect monumental testimonies of the presence of the gods on Earth.
A cycle of plenty has come true and the Two Lands are at peace and
prosperous.

07 Offertory & Canon.

The magic at work in the Lunar,
horizontal cult of Osiris is sympathetic and communal. The former involves
a three-tiered dynamics of offering, starting with an endless variety of
superb goods to be offered, and culminating in the Eye of Horus as the standard of
the act of offering (the first two registers mentioned above, of which the
second is the offertory). The latter, the canon,
is a rejuvenating communion (a mystical embrace) with the Eye by
consumption, for it represents the power of healing and wholeness (the
third register).

all possible offerings: first register : offered by the living Horus, the gods only
consume the "kas" of the various stuff placed on the table of
offerings ;

offer of
offerings (offertorium) :
second register :
the Eye of Horus represents all possible offerings (the "ka" of the
act of offering) ;

offer of communion (canon) : third register : the
consumption of the Eye of Horus restores Osires and enables him to
send out his Ba.

The first step in the magic of
offering, is the presentation and
consecration of physical stuff (first register). These are then set apart from all other things (cf. "sacrum").
Both physically (they are placed on a table of offerings), as temporally
(they "exist" in the "First Time"), the offerings are a reality on their
own, a piece of reality wholly and freely consecrated and returned to the
deity. The act of daily offerings is double. On the hand, the
best produce of Egypt is offered & set apart, on the other hand, ritual words &
actions empower these goods. This ritual intends only to offer the double
of these foodstuffs to the deities, for the latter only consume their vitality or
"ka". After having enjoyed this, the food can be eaten by the priests and
distributed among the people, called the "reversion of offerings".

Sublimation, typologization, subtilization or semiotic transference of offerings (the second register),
are at work
in both spiritual economies. In the Solar economy, which is an
eternalisation of the recurrent cycle of all photonic things, the divine
king offers Maat to Re, and "Maat" becomes "all good things".
Osirian faith is a linear approach of the cycle of life of every living
thing. In his Lunar role, the living Horus, entering the Duat, offers his
father his
Eye of Wellness, the archetype of "healing". Henceforward, the latter will give his son
a "good Nile". So Maat and the Eye of Horus, at times equated,
replacing all possible offerings, represent the synthesis of offerings. They operate
on two different levels of reality, encompassing the Two Lands. Maat
returns all to Re, the day, whereas the Wedjat is a gift to Osiris, the
night. Both the Eye of Horus and Maat are, like Pharaoh, the "image of
images", and the "power of powers" (cf.
Cannibal Hymn). No longer dependent on the physical quantity of the
offerings (the individual "kas" of the foodstuffs), Osiris receives
the synthesis of all
possible vital energy, visualized as the Eye of his son, destroyed (as he
was) by Seth, but restored (as he was) by Thoth (who assisted Isis). The
Eye of Horus is therefore the "ka" of all possible offerings, the
offertory of Egyptian religion.

Indeed, to the excellent quantity of the first register, a qualitative connotation
or sublimation is added : each
and every act of offering is conceived as the likeness of Horus giving his Eye to
Osiris (or of Pharaoh offering Maat to Re). The variety of excellent physical
offerings are so many manifestations of the same filial principle : as
Horus, a son vindicates and restores his father, i.e. the effect returns to the cause to
perpetuate the generative cycle, for a spiritual father will effectively
co-effect the success of his son ...

The canon, or third register, explains the final task of the Eye.
Osiris, becoming one with the Eye of Horus, eats the body of Horus as well as
its vital Ka-power, namely the Eye
as "offer of offerings" (cf. the second register). Each time the king
assumes the role of Osiris, he embraces the Eye, the body and Ka
of Horus, and has his soul restored and ready to be spiritualized. This level is related to the soul, the "Ba". Because Osiris
consumes the Eye, he is able to set himself in motion, i.e. his
spiritual principle of motility and transformation (or soul) is activated.
This last effect of the Eye allows Osiris to transform his Ba into an Akh,
and rise as a luminous spirit. As an Akh, Osiris is able to send his Ba
and cause a "good Nile".

Besides being projected upon the Lunar cycle, this process also refers to
the Sothic year.
The Egyptian calendar had 12 months and 365 days, divided in 3 seasons of
4 months of 30 days plus five epagomenal days associated with Nut and the
birth of her children (Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis & Nephthys). The first
month was called "Akhet" or "inundation". It is the season when the Nile
was in flood (mid July to mid November). "Proyet" or "springing forth" was
the time in which land emerged to be planted (mid November to mid March),
and during "Shomu" ("deficiency") the land dried up and harvest was
necessary (mid March to mid July). Full flood capacity was reached by
August (in the South) and by September (in the North). In the Solar
calendar, the New Year and the month of "Akhet", inundation, began on the
19th of July.

For a period of 70 days before the Summer solstice of July, the stars of
Orion ("Sah", "The Buried One" or Osiris) had been invisible and now
reemerged in the Lunar night sky. In
funerary theology, this would be the time taken to transform
the corpse into a mummy (or "sah"), a magical talisman or interphase
between the world of the living and the realm of the dead. Only after this
period, could the Ritual of Opening the Mouth be performed.

The first sighting, before its disappearance in the glare of a brightening
dawn, of the star Sirius, the nose of the Great Dog, the brightest fixed
star of the night sky close to the constellation of Orion (Osiris), was
the single most important event in the Egyptian calendar. This heliacal
rising of the "Dog Star" or Sopdet (Isis) on the horizon, about the time
of the Summer solstice, was awaited by all. It heralded the steady rise of
the Nile. For nature synchronized this appearance with the Summer solstice
and the inundation, and so offered a nexus for
ante-rational projections &
identifications. The Nile began to rise on "The Night of the Teardrop",
commemorating the event of Isis discovering Osiris's death. Her
sorrow precipitated the rise of the Nile. During this period of surging
waters, Isis and Nephthys seek the dead body of Osiris, afloat in them.
They find it and bring it ashore.

"Osiris was drowned in his water. Isis and Nephthys
looked out, beheld him, and attended to him. (...) They heeded in time and
brought him to land."
Memphis Theology, lines 62-63.
Two weeks after the floods reached their full height in the Delta, the
waters would begin to subside. The Autumn solstice of September marks the
lengthening of night and the gradual retreat of Orion in the sky. The rule
of the powers of darkness (Seth) was incipient. Synchronous with the
abating Nile, returning to its bed by November, the first crops could be
planted to be harvested by March, when the river dropped to its lowest.

On
the 25th of November, the festival of the Weeping of Isis and Nephthys was
held. Both sisters weep because Osiris died, but also because his body,
once found, is again taken from them by Seth and this time cut into 14
pieces (cf. the waning quaters of the Lunar cycle). In the month that
followed, these pieces are retrieved and the mummy made and animated.
At the end of these rituals, Osiris, as a mummy, an empowered "double" of
the actual body, exists in a vegetative, quasi dormant
state. Nevertheless, before leaving for the Duat, Osiris, with his magical
penis made by his wife, inseminates Isis ...

According to Plutarch, Isis "at
the Winter solstice gave birth to Harpocrates, imperfect and prematurely
born, amid plants that burgeoned and sprouted before their season"(De Iside et Osiride,
65). He also adds : "For
this reason they bring to him as an offering the first-fruits of growing
lentils, and the days of his birth they celebrate after the spring
equinox. When the people hear these things, they are satisfied with them
and believe them, deducing the plausible explanation directly from what is
obvious and familiar."

The following sequence is suggested :

Summer Solstice : the Egyptian New Year : Isis
& Nephthys beweep the death of Osiris, seek his body all over the land of
Egypt and Isis finds it in Byblos ;

Autumn Equinox : after Seth dismembers the
body of Osiris, found by Isis, the latter reassembles and reanimates the
mummy of Osiris ;

Spring Equinox:
the vindication and coronation of Horus is celebrated and the latter
brings his Eye of Osiris, who ascends to the heaven of the Duat, bringing
the flood.

For
Assmann (1992), Egyptian cult was based on a tripartite distinction,
namely between
action, iconic representation and recitation. In the daily ritual, this
corresponded to three levels of symbolization : (a) the priest
officiating before a statue (action), (b) the king officiating before a god
(representation), and (c) a god conversing with a god (language).
Regarding the latter, it should be remarked that as sacred communication
cannot take place between a god and a human being, the god's role is
played by the king, who in turn is represented by the priest.

Only in the
very short Amarna period (ca. 1353 - 1336 BCE), this three-tiered symbolization was abandoned,
as well as all references to the Duat. Osiris, together with Amun, were
ousted. Amarna spirituality represents the "purest" historical form of
Heliopolitanism, one close to monotheism. In the Old Kingdom, Re had
always been part of a constellation of deities. In the vision of
Akhenaten, this context was eliminated.
The king himself officiates, not to a
statue, but to the "living Aten". On the level of language, this
rejection of intermediary symbolism goes hand in hand with the rejection
of the magical power of language.

But by the time of Seti I (ca. 1290 - 1279 BCE)
and Ramesses II (ca. 1279 - 1213 BCE),
a renewed trinity was developed :
Amun of Thebes, the hidden,
Re of
Heliopolis, the light, and
Ptah of Memphis, the body. Osiris, the night
Sun, was understood as the nocturnal complement of Re, offering
rejuvenation to the latter by communion with "the image of Osiris", the
mysterious tail-in-mouth serpent. To regenerate, i.e. return to the First Time (cf.
Amduat), the corpse of Re abides in the coils of the
Oroboros, the "image of Osiris".

08 Escaping Osiris.

"... he will never
give me to Osiris, for I have not died the death, I possess a spirit in
the horizon ..."Pyramid Texts
- § 350.

"Re-Atum will not give You to Osiris, and he shall
not claim your heart, nor have power over your heart. (...) Re-Atum will
not give You to Horus, and he shall not claim your heart nor have power
over your heart. O Osiris, You shall never have power over him, nor shall
your son have power over him ..."Pyramid Texts
- §§ 146 - 146.
"Osiris Wenennefer",
he who exists in goodness & beauty and "Osiris Onnophris", he who is in everlastingly good condition,
are suggestive of the intrinsic goodness of Osiris. Is this a
comprehensive interpretation, or more like a pious wish ? Clearly, once the
devotee of the Solar faith associated the realm of the dead with Orisis,
he did not wished to be delivered up to the latter. Already in the Old
Kingdom, we read the apprehension that Osiris might enter the pyramid with
evil intent.

"May Osiris not come with this his evil coming ; do
not open your arms to him ..."Pyramid Texts
- § 1267.

Indeed, besides the heaven of Osiris, his realm also contained the "secret
slaughter chamber" in which the wicked were destined to be punished and
devoured. Besides imprisonment and enchainment, humiliation, torture and
mutilation were inflicted with great cruelty. At times, Osiris would let
all the genies in his service torture one of the deceased. These had
terrible names : "those who eat their father", "those who eat their
mothers", "torturer", "murderer", "miscreant", "aggressor" etc. They were
engaged in breaking bones, living on blood and swallowing entrails (cf.
the cannibalism Osiris stopped on Earth). The damned walked on their heads
and had to eat excrement and drink urine. Some were forced to torture
others. The love of sadism avant la lettre displayed in the hell of
Osiris is confusing. Even after successfully undergoing the many trials of
the Duat, the dead continued to protect themselves with spells making sure
they would never be sacrificed by the guardians of Osiris, "those who make
massacres". Why ? Because Osiris, even under normal circumstances, could
display, not unlike Pluto, great cruelty. Moreover, his guardians were also jailers. Is the
Duat a prison ?

"... Osiris's bodyguards, who protected the god
against Seth and his rebel band and were invested with all sorts of
powers, were also charged with guarding the ba-souls of all the dead, male
or female. They accordingly strove to prevent them from flying off.
Liberation for the ba meant escaping the uncertainties of the kingdom of
the dead ..." -
Meeks & Favard-Meeks,
1997, p.148.

In the Amduat, the dormant souls of the deceased
and the inhabitants of the kingdom of Osiris eagerly awaited the daily passage
of the Barque of the Sun. For a brief moment, they awoke and saw the
light. They existed in the idle hope of spending eternity in Re's company,
the ultimate realization, but cannot fly off ! Boarding the Solar bark and
ascending to the sky, was escaping the dangers and abuses of the Osirian
kingdom. But to do so, incredible obstacles had to be faced and by-passed.
In this, magic played a crucial role. The
pataphysics of magic ruled the universe,
including the kingdom of Osiris. The latter had been given a judicial
dispensation, but not a variant ontology. Without powerful Lunar magic,
all was lost. Hence, many books of the underworld add that the knowledge
they contain, proven a million times, is beneficial to the dead and the
living alike.

Asymmetry between the two spiritual economies is at hand. The system is a
hierarchy, with the Duat as the intermediate step leading up to the sky of Re.
The Lunar system provides to be an interphase connecting sky and Earth. The
Western horizon gives access to the Duat, and the latter leads to the
Eastern horizon, the place of transformation. Here, the soul is
transformed into a spirit (from Ba to Akh), rising to the sky as a
luminous spirit in the company of Re in the sky.

We encountered four fundamental spiritual stations :

station of
housing the double (Ka): keeping in mind this life and the next (cf.
the sapiental tradition), the fundamental task of the
living is to make preparations for death - the tomb is the house of
the Ka, the vital imprint of the deceased in terms of his or her
energy and its form ;

station of
keeping the heart (Ib) pure
: the living are priests and have to perform daily offerings -
this is a personal responsibility relative to physical vitality (Ka) &
social class. Mind, conscience & will may advance a person far beyond
the latter ;

station of the
soul (Ba) :
Lunar, reflective magic (Ars Obscura) : the Duat and the
kingdom of Osiris - inner psychology, imagination, the unconscious,
the dreamworld ;

stage of the spirit (Akh) : Solar mysticism and creative magic
: the sky and the realm of Re, reached after the transformation of the
Ba in the Eastern horizon.

The archetype evoked by the myth of Osiris is bi-polar : on the one hand,
Osiris is the good king of the dead, who, regenerated by the Eye of Horus,
assures his son king Horus a "good Nile", and on the other hand, he is the
stern ruler of the kingdom of the dead and its secret slaughter houses and
pits of fire. If the weighing of the heart is suggestive of his justice,
his whimsical cruelty is the irrational, "dark" side of the Moon.
Osiris is the kingdom of the common dead, not of Pharaoh and his
favorites. These elect only transit the Duat and are
transformed in the Eastern horizon to merge with Re. As Osiris always
stays in the unconscious world of shadows and regenerative archetypes, he is a formidable power, nobody, except Pharaoh, escapes.

09 Assuming the godform of
Osiris.

"O king Unas, You have not departed dead, You have
departed alive (to) sit upon the throne of Osiris, your Aba-scepter in
your hand, (so) that You may give orders to the living, your Lotus scepter
in your hand, (so) that You may give orders to those whose seats are
hidden."Pyramid Texts
- § 134.

In a nonfunerary interpretation (cf.
Naydler, 2005), these texts (although
found in a tomb) explain how the ecstatic,
living Horus departs to the Duat. On Earth, he sits upon the throne of Osiris (as
the vindicated ruler), and grasps two sacred sceptres in either hand. With
the sceptre of authority and consecration ("abA", later also
"sxm", "sekhem"), Horus, lord of the Two
Lands, rules the living, and with the Lotus-staff, he rules the dead (the
Lotus being a symbol of rebirth). He departs alive.

"It would seem that the destination of the king is
the realm of the dead, but he is journeying into it alive." - Naydler, 2005,
p.202.

In Egyptian religion, assuming a god or goddess form involved a transformation
("Xpr"). By transforming the speaker into a
special creature (like the Benu bird, or a kite), a god or a goddess,
magical spells offer a by-pass. In
this higher state, the magician undergoes the semantic field and the
typical process of the archetype
at hand, and benefits from this momentary resonance with "pure" power.
Certain types of energies are harvested, other avoided. The
Amduat is suggestive of a complete spatiotemporal evocation of
the unconscious patterns of regeneration (the Ars Obscura), already
at work in the tomb of Unas and in its Pyramid Texts. Solutions,
insights & illuminations result from this purging of the personal mind
(heart and double) by the Ba travelling into the Duat and, via the Eastern
horizon, fugally joining the Akh plane of the deities, to return as a
young, vigorous, living Horus.

In utterance 219, the identification is more dramatic and, interestingly, the living
Osiris is introduced :

"O Atum, this one here is your son Osiris whom You
have caused to be restored that he may live. He lives ! This king lives !
He is not dead, this king is not dead ! He is not destroyed, this king is
not destroyed ! He has not been judged, this king has not been judged ! He
judges, this king judges !"Pyramid Texts
- § 167.

This affirmation is made twelve times to major deities such as Atum, Shu,
Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Isis, Seth, Nephthys, Thoth, Horus, the Great Ennead &
the Lesser Ennead and repeated twelve more times to twelve manifestations
of Osiris. In his role of Osiris, king Unas escapes the fate of being
judged, for he is not yet dead, but only in a dead posture. In this form
of Osiris, the king is himself the judge. But the semiotic is double, for
even dead, the son of Re cannot be judged.

In his ritual role of Osiris, the king receives the Eye of Horus and is
rejuvenated. He is able to awake, turn around and move as himself again.
He eats and returns to himself.

"Awake, king Unas ! Turn yourself about, king Unas !
So shout 'I' ! O king Unas, stand up and sit down to a thousand of bread,
a thousand of beer, roast meat of your rib-joints from the
slaughter-house, and bread from the Wide Hall. The god is provided
with a god's offering, king Unas is provided with this bread of his. Come
to your Ba, O Osiris, O Ba among the Akhu, mighty in your places,
whom the Ennead protect in the Mansion of the Prince. O king Unas, raise
yourself up to me, betake yourself to me, do not be far from me, for the
tomb is your barrier against me. I give You the Eye of Horus, I have
allotted it to You ; may it be pleasant to You. O king Unas, arise,
receive this your bread from my hand. O king Unas, I will be a helper to
You." Pyramid Texts
- §§ 214 - 217.

Although only fragmentary, and certainly not clear-cut, we do observe the
three fundamental stages of ecstasy, also found in Upper Palaeolithic
cave mysteries :

departure from the plane of
Geb : in trance, the living Horus-king enters the Duat ;

identification with Osiris in
the Duat & resurrection : in the Duat, the ecstatic king
embraces the ritual "sah" (mummy), the second transformation of the
"body" of Osiris, and undergoes the stages of the Osirian drama
(culminating in his consumption of the Eye of Horus and his
resurrection) ;

empowered return to the plane
of Geb : the king "awakes" out of his trance with more magical
power ("Sa") at his command.

"To say : O Atum-Re, this king
Unas comes to You, an Imperishable Spirit, lord of dispensation
in the place of the four papyrus columns. Your son comes to You, this King
Unas comes to You. May (both of) You traverse the sky, being united in the
darkness. May (both of) You rise in the horizon, in the place where it is
well with You." Pyramid Texts
- § 152.

The living Horus, assuming the godform of Osiris, travels with Atum-Re
"united in darkness" to reemerge on the Eastern horizon. The
living king is an Akh, a god by birth. Hence, his claim is just and, if
all magical pathways are clear, his ascension to the sky of Re guaranteed.
In the 6th Hour of the Duat, the Ba of Re unites with the "image of
Osiris", to find regeneration and renewed momentum. Here, we read how the
king travels with Re in the Duat, and participates in the latter's
rejuvenation.

Egyptian
Levels of Reality

Decad
of Pythagoras

Worlds
in Qabalah

heaven of Re
lightland of the Akhu
the realm of the Akh

1

Atziluth : 1 - 2 - 3
origination
Fire - Yod

the horizon
lightland of the transformation of the Ba

2 - 3

Briah
: 4 - 5 - 6
creation
Water - He

heaven of Osiris
kingdom of Osiris
Duat - realm of the Ba

4 - 5 - 6

Yetzirah
: 7 - 8 - 9
formation
Air - Vau

Geb, the Earth
4 Sons of Horus
realm of Ib & Ka

7 - 8 - 9 - 10

Assiah
: 10
manifestation
Earth - He

The assumption of the godform of Osiris serves several goals :

replenishing kingly powers : because the flow
of time depletes the energy of life (the Golden Age of plenty, or "zep
tepi", being past), the living Horus regularly reassures the protection of
the gods over himself and Egypt. All the forces are invoked to keep the
sacred order of Maat. Three main moments are : (a) succession (death and
funeral of the predecessor and the enthroning of the new Horus), (b)
annual confirmation (through symbolic death and rebirth) and (c)
periodical rejuvenation (after 30 years or rule or at the age of 30 a Sed
festival was held). Each time, the "sah" of Osiris played an essential
role, representing the magical condition of the body prior to its
rejuvenation (thanks to the Eye of Horus). It was the most appropriate
godform for the king to reenact, for Osiris had been a living king, had
died, had been mummified, reanimated and resurrected ;

preparation for physical death : after its
destruction and dismemberment (first transformation), the
transformation of the scattered body of Osiris into a mummy occurs. This change is
crucial to build an interphase between this world and the Duat. The "sah"
is the actual body, albeit in a new symbolic (imaginal) unity. The
actual, biological unity was explicitly destroyed by Seth's
scattering. The mummy, "sah" or magical body of Osiris is
reanimated by Isis, activated by the Ritual of Opening the Mouth and
restored by the Eye of Horus. This third transformation spiritualizes the
"sah" and enthrones Osiris as the universal spirit of life. To assume the death-posture is a way
to prepare oneself for what is the inevitable conclusion of physical life
: the death of the body (of the actual Osiris, cf. first transformation).
It is a way to already acquaint oneself with the extraordinary magical world of Osiris (in
his second and third transformations) ;

enhancement of magical power : as sublunar
magic is Lunar, the realm of Osiris is a necessary step on the way to
master the secrets of creation. Marshaling the reflection of the Sun, the
Moon represents the imaginal, invisible & silent ; the unconscious realm
complementing the conscious brilliance of the Sun and its spiritual
economy (Re). The mind (Thoth) is also Lunar, for in tune with the tides
and dependent of the rhythms of the Earth. The Solar magician is a
protector of the just order of things. His supreme ritual is the Offering
of Maat to Re, the natural orders of things to their ultimate, creative
source. His role is deterministic and monarchic. The Lunar magician, like
a healer, is a restorer of Maat. Demons
are part of creation and the divine order. They are called "a yawning
space" (chaos) because their functioning is inimical to life and its
photonic patterns. The Lunar role brings in uncertainty and individual
free will. Imagination constitutes the realm of freedom and opportunity, complementing the
unchanging, recurrent cycle of the Sun and its eternalizations. Both
are the two sides of the same magic ;

Lunar illumination : to gain
total freedom in the dream world, is nothing less than a complete
understanding of the conditions (variables, constants, parameters)
pertaining to the ego. During his coronation, Osiris comes to himself as himself.
After three transformations of his
physical body, this process is total and spiritual. The realm of Osiris has to be crossed before, in lightland
(in the horizon), the human soul is transformed into a divine spirit.

10 Osirian faith and Christianity briefly compared.

"The living are not at
the mercy of the dead ; the shades are without force and without
consciousness. There are no ghostly terrors, no imaginings of
decomposition, and no clatterings of dead bones ; but equally there is
no comfort and no hope. The dead Archilles brushes aside Odysseus' words
of praise, saying : 'Do not try to make light of death to me ; I
would sooner be bound to the soil in the hire of another man, a
man without lot and without much to live on, than ruler over all the
perished dead.' In the dreary monotony everything becomes a matter of
indifference." -
Burkert,
1985, p.197, my italics.

Elsewhere, the crucial difference between
Egyptian and Greek initiation and religion came to the fore.

In the Greek mysteries, the afterlife was depicted as a realm of shadows
and any hope of individual survival was deemed ephemeral. Nobody escaped
destiny, except the deities and the lucky few elected. The latter
"escaped" from the world and its sordid entropic fate, misery and possible
"eschaton" : a world-fire invoked by these wrathful deities themselves,
unforgiving of man's tragi-comical sins, but able to recreate the world in
a whim ! Escape from this fated comedy was offered through the mysteries.
They would erase the cause of the heaviness of the soul and its attachment
to Earth, and, for Pythagoras and his school, end the cycle of
metempsychosis, the successive return of the soul in other physical
bodies.

Egyptian initiations, unlike the Greek, were not meant to release the
applicant from the solid chains of the world and its destiny, quite on the
contrary. The Egyptians maintained a series of rituals aimed at "a
constantly renewed regeneration" (Hornung,
2001, p.14). At best, the Greeks (like the Egyptians) induced the point of
death in order to glimpse into its darkness, to "see the goddess" and
renew (cf. the death posture). But they had no "science of the Hades" as
in the Amduat. The active continuity between life and death found
in Egypt, contradicts the closed and separated interpretation of the
Greeks, fostering "escapism" (the "body" as a "prison" out of which one
needs to escape). In Egypt, no "new" life was necessary. Death could bring
"more" life. For both life and the afterlife depended on identical
conditions : offerings ; either directly to the deities through Pharaoh or
indirectly to the Ka of the deceased. If dualism fits the Greeks, triadism
is Egyptian.

If Greco-Roman culture introduced a negative view on Earthly existence,
one calling for a movement away from physical life, fostering a
disincarnate return to the world of ideas (as in Platonism), introducing a
major cleavage between, on the one hand, the
ante-rationality of the cultures of
Antiquity and, on the other hand, rational Greek thought, then
Judeo-Christian beliefs added to this a fundamental reversal of the
spiritual economy dominating Antiquity. Grosso modo, Antiquity
proposed a naturalistic exchange between the sphere of humanity and that
of the deities. In Egypt, sacrifice was intended to feed (through
ascension) the Kas of the gods, which gratified their Bas. In return,
precisely by way of souls & doubles, these Akhu would send blessings down
to the physical plane. The gods never incarnate and no human being could
become divine without loosing the "soul" of humanity (to be transformed
into a spirit). In-between, the innocent victim is sacrificed by
way of offerings. Through this, the deities are appeased and the circular
sacrificial movement is kept in place. Although the mechanism may differ,
but all religions of Antiquity (the Greco-Roman included) operated along
these lines : the summum bonum was sacrificed to satisfy the
deities and so modify the ill fate they had in stall for the worshippers.

"'Don't hurt the boy or do anything to him,' he
said. 'Now I know that You honour and obey God, because You have not kept
back your only son from Him."Genesis, 22:12.

The naturalistic exchange implied by sacrifice was overturned by Judaism.
God was no longer "in need" for the son of Abraham. The only thing that
mattered was the latter's total surrender to the will of God. The moment
God knew Abraham would have killed Isaac, He stopped the sacrifice. The
innocent victim is no longer a currency flowing between God and humanity.
The convenant initiated a sacred history, defined by man's obedience.
Punishment comes when one returns to the old ways, as the story of the
Golden Calf makes clear. In Judaism, the core of the relationship between
man and God is legalistic, no longer naturalistic. Christianity will
exhalt this new way, but in a dramatical fashion, for no longer is the
relationship mediated by a legal system, but by a morality founded on a
personal, direct contact with God Incarnate !

At the moment when God Himself, as Christ, has become the innocent victim,
the need for a bloody sacrifice is finally over and the book of Antiquity
and natural religion is closed. Indeed, if God is allowed to become fully
human, the ontological divide between both has been crossed.

"I have said, You are gods ; and all of you are
children of the Most High."Psalms, 82:6.

On the one hand, literalism, the one-to-one identification of themes is no longer tenable.
Paul and the writers of the gospels did not study Ancient Egyptian to
invent Christianity. In a period when
Judaism was strongly influenced by
Hellenism, Christianity started as
a conservative Jewish sect keeping circumcision
sacred. And although Philo of
Alexandria likely influenced Paul, and we are told by Matthew (2:14) that
the infant Jesus escaped to Egypt (for "out of Egypt
have I called my son" - 2:15), an immediate influence is possible
but not likely (How long did Jesus stay in Egypt ?).

Instead, linguistics,
semiotics and symbolism enable us to identify standard literary themes
through time, like the extraordinary birth of a hero or a god, his return
from the dead, the consumption of transformed stuff, the sending of the
helping hand etc. They also aim to identify objective cycles and their
synchronous timing and semiotic parallels (cf. synchronous projections on
the Lunar and Stellar cycles). The stronger these themes resonate, the
more likely that the oldest strand contains the original frequency.

On the other hand, skepticism (disguised as Hellenocentrism), negating the possibility itself
of a powerful mediating and general impact of
Egyptian culture, in particular its
religion and wisdom, on all cultures touching the
Mediterranean, in particular the Greek, is refuted by the evidence
discussed elsewhere.

"It is crucial to the
'difference' of Christianity, that is, to its unique consideration of the
relationship between the human and the divine, that the figure of Christ
partake of both the human and the divine, and that he therefore suffer
death upon the cross, and it is no less crucial that the Christian
believer gain access to the divine through the 'incorporation' of the body
and blood of Christ." - Hare,
1999, p.225.

For Paul,
Christian faith and the resurrection of
Christ form an indivisible unity. In later fundamental theology, this
event becomes the pillar of
orthodoxy. Paul's message ...

"It is about His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ : as to
his humanity, he was born a descendant of David ; as to His Divine
Holiness, He was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being
raised from death."Romans, 1:3-4.

"Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for
wisdom. As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is
offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles."1 Corinthians, 1:22-23.

For a host of fundamental Christian theologians (limited by scripture), the
resurrection of Christ is the bedrock of Christianity. During Roman Mass,
Christ's death, resurrection and second coming are confirmed just after the
transsubstantiation of the offerings (the third register). However, the
newness of this faith lay not in the fact a man, a god or God dies
and returns from the dead. Not even in the story Christ did so in a special,
renewed, spiritual body (1 Corinthians, 15:44). Nor in the Presence
of the Divine in the bloodless sacrifice of the flesh and blood of Christ.
Although, in Catholicism, the Host and the Cup are the only loci of
Divine Presence, and intimately connected with the Passion & the
Resurrection of Christ, semiotically, this sacramental thanksgiving ows
its newness primarily because of the Incarnation. A point which cannot be
stressed enough, given the predominance of the narrative, temporal
interpretation (linking the Eucharist with the Last Supper and the Jewish
Pesach).

In Antiquity, before rationality was common, as the myth of
Osiris amply demonstrates, resurrection and magical bodies were part of
the religious (astral) paradigm. To conquer death was not the monopoly of
Jesus Christ, and countless mythical & legendary heroes & magicians
pre-dating Christ left us their wonderful stories. The new window
introduced by Christianity is the idea that God Himself Incarnates in
this world as Jesus Christ. In Egypt, the supreme god (Atum-Re) and
his retinue never manifest on Earth as such, and certainly not as a human
being ! With the exception of
Pharaoh, the Akhu never leave the sky of Re and communicate top-down by way of
their souls & doubles. Gods communicate with gods. Humans hide or acquire
godhood.

With this extraordinary notion of the Incarnation of God in a human
being, Christianity
introduced a new vertical dimension and co-relative dispensation.
Humanity as such was raised to Divinity in Christ. In
this perspective, the salvic, sacramental Presence of Jesus Christ, is
clearly less
important than the historical fact of the Coming of God as a
human being, as the
Q-people and the
Didache testify. For with the birth of
Christ, so the
Gospel of Thomas tells us, the Kingdom of
God arrived.

The Incarnation is nothing less than God becoming human flesh & blood in Jesus Christ.
God
becoming human and also remaining God. Pharaoh, also a godman, was more "god"
than man. His Akh was divine, for he was the son of Re. His human
appearance was a "form", an "image". Jesus Christ is Divine
and fully human, two
natures and two wills ! This supernatural Christology is the major weak spot of
the whole Christian edifice, and cause of endless, ongoing disputes. The
"humanity" of Christ is difficult to define, for it is "without sin" and
so undefiled (Adamic). Does this humanity-before-the-Fall not lead to monophysitism
?
In other words : how can "sin" be removed from the concept of "humanity"
without idealizing humanity ?

If the
Incarnation is the Divine becoming human flesh & blood, then the Resurrection is
human flesh and blood becoming Divine. As the latter is impossible without the
former, Christianity is rooted in the Incarnation. So if Jesus Christ did not Incarnate in this world as God,
i.e. God never became fully human, then
Christianity lacks novelty.

Indeed, comparing Christian Christology and Trinitarism with some of the
semiotic clusters characterizing Osirian faith, brings common themes to
the fore. As
Early Christianity was strongly
influenced by monotheist Jewish aniconicity and Greek Hellenism, any direct comparison with the
ante-rational, pictoral
henotheism of Egypt is futile and will
not be attempted. Moreover, Jesus Christ is put forward as a single Divine Person, while Osiris,
Horus and Isis are three deities.

Note these pertinent resonances :

Osiris is the good king of Egypt, Christ is the anointed king of Israel ;

Osiris and Christ are murdered by usurpers ;

Osiris and Christ are resurrected ;

Osiris is resurrected in the Duat, Christ on Earth ;

Osiris is resurrected by Horus, his son, Christ by His Father ;

Osiris ascends in a resurrected body, Christ ascends in a body of glory ;

Osiris gives salvation to everybody, Christ is the Savior of Humanity ;

the death of Osiris regenerates, the death of Christ redeems ;

the body of Osiris is lost and then mummified, the body of Christ buried
and gone ;

Horus is born of the magic of Isis & Christ is born of the Holy Virgin ;

Christ and Horus are both born at the Winter Solstice ;

Christ resurrects around the time that Horus is vindicated ;

Horus is the divine son of the god Osiris, Christ is the unique son of God
;

the resurrected Christ sends His Spirit, the resurrected Osiris a "good
Nile" ;

Osiris eats the Eye of Horus, Christ consecrates bread and wine at the
Last Supper ;

Osiris is the lord of wine & corn, bread & wine become the flesh & blood
of Christ ;

etc.

At the end of the Apostolic Age (ca. 110 CE), the
quest for
a coherent orthodox core for Christianity
was already afoot. Clement I enthroned Roman orthodoxy and had, as early
as ca. 90 - 99, defined "apostolic succession" and the primacy of Rome !
When counter movements emerged (cf. Gnosticism, Marcionism & Montanism),
the centrist orthodox core invented heresy. A
lasting Imperial Christianity would be the outcome (cf. Constantine the
Great and the Council of Nicæ of 325). The ideological schism with the Eastern Churches
became irreversible
(cf. monophysite Christology & the Filioque of Trinitarism). In the East, the Father is the
core, while the Spirit proceeds only from Him. In the West, the Son is
focal, and the Spirit is the dynamical Love between Father and Son. This
difference had and has tremendous consequences, splitting Christianity and
invoking Protestantism, added to the mess. Already at an early stage of
canonization, Christian unity was lost.

in Egyptian thought God is One and Many, in Semitic thought God is
singular ;

Pharaoh was a god in the body of a man, Christ has two natures : human and
Divine ;

in Greek thought evil is deficient & absent, while Seth is a deity ;

human nature is to be transformed, while Jesus Christ, is both human and
God ;

gods only communicate with gods, while God Incarnated as a human being ;

etc.

"Horus has completely filled You with his Eye in
this its name of 'God's Offer'."Pyramid Texts, §§ 614.

Taking these and other incompatibles into
consideration, ponder for a moment on the Christian ritual par excellence : thanksgiving
("berakot"), part of the Christian Eucharist. The core of this
interesting ritual is called the "Canon", which starts with a preface
leading up to the consecration, the actual changing of wine & bread into
the blood and body of Christ, invoking the Resurrected Christ.
The study of the Christian Eucharist is a subject on its own (its earliest
catechism is found in the
Didache). The register of the actual Presence of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, in flesh & blood, was added to what originally was
a thanksgiving reply of the Jews to God for having freed them from Pharaoh
and his yoke. Thanksgiving is an acknowledgement of liberation from
slavery. This prayer became the "preface" of the Christian Canon (cf. the
"Vere dignum"), for the Christians gave thanks to God for having
given them His Son and the spiritual liberation of humanity.

"I speak to You as sensible people ; judge for
yourselves what I say : The cup we use in the Lord's Supper and for which
we give thanks to God : when we drink if it, we are sharing in the blood
of Christ. And the bread we break : when we eat it, we are sharing in the
body of Christ. Because there is the one loaf of bread, all of us, though
many, are one body, for we all share the same loaf."1 Corinthians, 10:14-17.

The importance of thanksgiving has been dealt with
elsewhere. The Jewish prayer of
thanksgiving forms a continuous reply to the original Divine speech, using
the words of that original speech, and thus re-enacts the experience
initiating the covenant between YHVH (Adonai) and humanity. Of this
practice, many Egyptian parallels exist (cf. the return to the First Time,
the importance of divine speech, etc.).

Saying grace before a meal was not unknown in Egyptian religion (nor was
Pharaoh's baptism). In Egypt, Pharaoh (as Shu, life) offered on a divine
altar, for the table of offerings was Atum himself ! In Egyptian thought, a
stronger bond between sacrifice and the original beginning of time (or
"zep tepi") cannot
be conceived.

The Egyptian equivalent of saying grace is found in the second register on the
inner face of the northern section of the girdle-wall of the temple of
Horus at Edfu. The table of offerings is identifed with the creator Atum,
and Pharaoh with his eldest son Shu, created by spitting saliva. The altar
is thereby associated with the First Time. Atum-Re produces food and
material plenty. The king offers them back on the altar (so that their kas
may be fed), and ultimately consumes them (known as the reversion of
offerings or communion). His thanksgiving is content worshipfulness.

"O Table-god (Atum), You have spat forth Shu from
your mouth (...) O Table-god, may he (the king as Shu) give to You all
that he will have dedicated, since he has become a god who is an
emanation, alert, worshipful and powerful. (...) May he dedicate to You
every good thing which You will give him, since he has become Heka. May he
dedicate to You every good thing, food-offerings in abundance. May he set
them before You and may You be content with them, may your Ka be content
with them (...)

Be satisfied and worshipful, O Living Falcon, Lord of the
Two Lands, Lord of the Nobles, Lord of the common folk, Lord of the Seat
of Re, Lord of gods, through the offerings which this son of yours brings
to You, this Worshipfulness of yours, this Ka of yours, this Heka of
yours, this Ptah of yours, this Shu of yours, this Thoth of yours, this
abundance of yours upon Earth. May You be content and worshipful with
them. May your Ka be content with them, and Your heart be content with
them for ever."Grace before a Meal - Temple of Edfu
(girdle-wall).

Is there a semiotic resemblance between the second part of the Canon (in particular
the consecration and the communion) and the third register of the Eye of
Horus ? The issue is left open.

sum total of
all offerings
: bread, wine, water, light & incense : the endless variety of
Egyptian offerings is reduced to five ;

"To say : O Osiris king Neferkare, Horus has filled
You with his complete Eye."Pyramid Texts, §21c."O Osiris king Wenis, take the Eye of Horus and
absorb it into your mouth. - the morning meal."Pyramid Texts
- § 60.
Christian consecration is said to contain the exact words of Jesus Christ during the
Last Supper. In the East, the sacramental gifts are transubstantiated by
the Holy Spirit, and not by these words of Christ. But in both cases, the
ritual is supposed to invoke the Presence of God the Son de opere
operato. Life-restoring communion with the flesh & blood of Christ
offers a direct contact with this Presence of God. The Canon is
Incarnational. During the consecration of the Host, the priest says :
"This is my body". The priest is acting in the Person of Christ, "in
Persona Christi".

In Egypt, the ecstasy of the living Horus enables the king and every
magician to enter the
Duat, see Osiris and become Osiris the king (cf.
Naydler, 2005). This "seeing" is
observing the mummy of Osiris (the second transformation of Osiris). It
itself, this is already a symbolical form (a "sah"), but in a vegetative,
inactive state. Because of the Eye of Horus, given to him by his son, Osiris is raised (third
transformation) and represents the spirit (effective power) of vegetation,
growth, fertility and life.

Assuming the king of the dead, Pharaoh receives the
Eye of Horus and is regenerated by it. When Horus brings his Eye of
Wellness to his father, he gives his own healed body, vindicated double
(Ka) and royal soul (Ba). Then an embrace follows (the Eye is eaten) and
Osiris is rejuvenated. This allows him to transform his soul into a divine
spirit and ascend to his own, netherworldly sky. From there he sends a
"good Nile" to the divine king and makes his magic work.

When Osiris the
king, ritually assuming the role of Osiris, is restored by the Eye, he
rules the Duat and returns to Earth (waking consciousness) as an empowered
living Horus. Then he truly is the lord of the Two Lands : Horus for the
living (East) and Osiris for the dead (West), Horus of the North and Seth
of the South.